“We’ll know the future of Modern Times by the end of June, I can confidently say that,” Jennifer Briggs, CEO of the San Diego, California-based brewery, said during a discussion Tuesday with Brewers Association (BA) president and CEO Bob Pease at the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) in Minneapolis.
“Modern Times is going to be sold,” Briggs continued. “What our future is going to be is really going to depend on who owns it.”
In February, Briggs told Good Beer Hunting that Modern Times was seeking a buyer or an investor. Two months later, the company announced that its creditor bank, California Bank & Trust, had “commenced litigation” over outstanding credit – $12.9 million across three loans issued April 1, 2019, according to an investor notice – that resulted in a court-ordered receivership process. Through the order, a court-appointed receiver is overseeing the sale of the business and any financial decisions through the process.
An intended buyer has not been named.
Modern Times also announced in February that it would be closing four locations – Portland, Oregon; and Oakland, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, California – and laying off 73 of its 266 employees.
“The layoffs were horrible,” Briggs said on stage. “I sat down on a Friday night in the corner of my home office and just cried.”
Briggs was appointed interim CEO in October 2021, following the resignation of founder and former CEO Jacob McKean in May, and was officially named to the position in January.
Despite financial challenges, Briggs said there remains “good demand” for Modern Times’ offerings, and that the company is beating the “cash flow targets that we gave to the bank” every week.
“The biggest challenge has been, how do you operate in a constrained environment?” Briggs said. “How do you make choices?”
Possibly giving some indication to the type of buyer Briggs would like to see for Modern Times, she emphasized during her conversation with Pease the importance of “proximity of ownership and proximity of leadership” to a brewery. However, she said she is “a pragmatist,” that “our economic system in the United States is built around consolidation,” and that “there’s things that are beyond our control.”
Briggs got emotional when expressing appreciation for fellow San Diego breweries and beer leaders, who have sent “multiple emails” of support in recent months.
“I appreciate those of you who have supported Modern Times because we’ve taken a lot of darts over the past months, and we’ve also gone through a lot of changes,” Briggs said. “But the people that have sent lots of support and the patrons that have come in, it reminds you why [we’re] here.”