Night Shift Brewing Company’s distribution partnership with the Sheehan Family Companies is helping the Everett, Massachusetts-headquartered craft brewery fill out the northeast.
Earlier this month, Sheehan subsidiary Craft Vermont began distributing Night Shift’s offerings in the Green Mountain State. The expansion is just the latest move since Sheehan took over Night Shift’s brand rights in mid-October and the brewery shut down its self-distribution business. Vermont marks the second state Sheehan has opened for Night Shift, following Rhode Island in November, Night Shift co-founder Rob Burns told Brewbound.
“We’ve finally completed that northern New England puzzle piece,” he said.
Burns called Rhode Island a logical fit for Night Shift, which has been producing beer under contract at Isle Brewers Guild for several years, making the Ocean State a “home away from home.”
Meanwhile, in January, Night Shift’s distribution rights transferred from Sarene Craft Beer Distributors to Sheehan subsidiaries Union (covering New York City’s five boroughs and Long Island) and Craft (in the Hudson Valley). Next week, the company will begin shipments to the Rochester area through T.J. Sheehan Distributing and Tri-Valley Beverage, Burns said.
According to Burns, the move to Sheehan in New York will give the company true statewide coverage.
“Wegmans is one of our biggest retail partners, and it’s nice that we’re gonna have some beer now in their backyard,” he added.
Next up for Night Shift and Sheehan is New Jersey in April or May with Hunterdon, Burns said. Maryland and Virginia will likely open up “by midyear or so.” Kentucky and Wisconsin, where Sheehan also operates, aren’t on the radar yet.
Burns admitted that the company is still evolving into a “traditional standalone brewery” and becoming “a best-in-class supplier” after shutting down its distribution business last year. That evolution includes building the brewery’s first sales team, as the brand previously relied on its distribution sales force, Burns said.
As such, the company has built a sales team of around 10 people led by senior sales director Meghan Zachry, who joined the company in December after leading sales at Two Roads Brewing for more than nine years.
“We’re really excited to have her leading the charge and bringing some fresh energy and perspective to the sales org,” Burns said.
The transition to Sheehan is already paying dividends in Massachusetts’ on-premise channel where the company is up 130% year-to-date, Burns said.
“One of our beliefs was that we were way under indexed as Night Shift Distro and that there was a lot of run room in the on-prem. And so we’re pretty excited to be building all these placements now and then see that trickle through our business as things pick up.”
2022 Big Bets: Wheat Lager, Hazy IPA, Pink Drink & More
Overall, Night Shift finished 2021 “slightly below flat,” according to Burns. Although the company’s taproom business returned, the company didn’t get a bump from the fridge loading period of the pandemic, Burns said. The transition to Sheehan also “caused a good amount of disruption in the marketplace,” which is just now subsiding, he added.
Burns said the growth engine for 2021 was 12-packs of Whirlpool New England pale ale, which he said “took off.” Through the early part of 2022, Whirlpool is up 60%, Burns added.
“It doesn’t seem to be slowing down,” he said.
Looking ahead to 2022, Burns said he’s excited for the release of Day Lite, a wheat lager with orange peel that checks in around 4% ABV and 100 calories. Day Lite that will release in 12-packs in May.
“We’ve been trialing that all last year, and it quickly became one of our taproom favorites, both among staff and customers,” he said. “Just incredibly drinkable and crushable. I’m bullish on the return of light beer in general.”
In addition to Day Lite, Night Shift has retooled its Fluffy hazy New England IPA (7% ABV) to make “the liquid a little bit more bright, a little more citrusy,” Burns said. The goal is to make Fluffy Night Shift’s centerpiece hazy moving forward.
“It seems like on our end, subtle tweaks, but already the velocity is picking up,” Burns said.
Night Shift is also releasing Juiceflow IPA (7% ABV) in 4-packs of 16 oz. cans, which Burns said modernizes Night Shift’s previous rotating hop series Morph.
Night Shift’s Hoot hard seltzer finished the year up over 2020 levels, but Burns admitted there was internal disappointment that the brand didn’t hit the company’s targets for it. The launch of Hoot Tropical last year also cannibalized a bit of the original Hoot variety pack business.
“We’re certainly not alone in this industry,” he added. “Certainly we had a little bit too much inventory by the end of the summer, ourselves. So like most other folks, we are just gonna be smarter and better at managing expectations.”
This spring, Night Shift will release 6-packs of Hoot Mango Limeade, which uses real fruit juice. The company will also launch Pink Drink, which Burns said is “rooted in hard seltzer” but will be a more flavorful FMB play.