CLEVELAND — This week, Market Garden Brewery reached an agreement with NWO Beverage to begin distribution of its GABF award-winning beers in the Toledo and Northwestern Ohio region. While Market Garden has seen double digit growth every year since its launch into retail distribution in 2016, this marks its first new territory opened since entering Columbus in January 2017. According to Co-Founder Michael Foran, “Our growth has been tremendous in Cleveland and Columbus. My focus for the organization has always been to make sure we provide exemplary beer and attention to these markets first and foremost before expanding into subsequent markets.”
Coming to a decision on a new distribution partner was a process that was not taken lightly by Foran and team; “I vetted several distributor options for this next big step and felt both comfortable and confident with NWO Beverage having successfully operated in that region for years on both a macro and craft level. PJ Sullivan’s team is well seasoned to take on our brand and run with it.”
Founded as a taproom and brewpub in 2011 with Brewmaster and Co-Founder Andy Tveekrem (formerly of Great Lakes Brewery and Dogfish Head fame) at the brewing helm, MGB has seen their short term capacity stretched to its limit throughout 2019, a year where they should reach 8000 barrels. Foran highlighted that this year he put the focus on making operational changes to its long term capacity to enable further scaling to not only manage the existing growth trajectory but also for new market entry.
“While we have taken the steady growth approach to dig deeper every year in our existing footprint, on the heels of another great GABF award I felt the peripheral demand was just too great to ignore,” said Foran. “Additionally being closer to the Detroit and Ann Arbor markets makes sense as we have a growing fan base and demand in those areas.”
Prosperity Wheat, Tveekrem’s pride and joy and the #1 overall volume brand for Market Garden, took home the Gold as America’s Best Hefeweizen last month at Great American Beer Festival; considered the top honor in the beer industry. “To win at GABF is always such an honor but do to so with your #1 brand and in a category as competitive as Hefeweizen enables us to leverage that win every single day,” Foran commented.
A mix of the core bottled and can every day brands like Prosperity Wheat, Citramax IPA as well as seasonal offerings such as the runaway cult favorite Festivus Holiday Ale will hit the Toledo market the week of November 4th.