Massachusetts-headquartered Night Shift Distributing is moving into Connecticut in mid-October.
Michael Oxton and Rob Burns, who co-founded the brewery in 2012 and the wholesaler in 2016 with Michael O’Mara, told Brewbound today that they plan to build the distribution business in the neighboring New England state from the ground up, similar to how they did in Massachusetts. They plan to operate an 11,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Stratford with a single refrigerated truck to start.
“We truly believe like our success in Massachusetts is heavily tied to our success with Night Shift Distro and kind of controlling our own destiny, so to speak,” Burns said.
“We’re excited to kind of recreate what we did and start from the ground up,” he continued. “We’re basically trying to mirror it all over again with one truck, a small warehouse, a few people, and just bootstrap it like we’ve done over the years.”
Although Night Shift is planning statewide service, Burns conceded that distribution statewide may be a challenge with one truck.
“We’re right along [Route] 95, so we have easy access to go up and down that corridor,” Burns said. “I think that will certainly be more of the focus. As we started with NSD, we sort of highspot it, looked for the right accounts to be seen in and then start filling in and going deeper in the market.”
Burns explained that one of Night Shift Distributing’s employees, Justin DiRienzo, moved to Connecticut about nine months ago and has been serving as a defacto GM for the business, leading daily operations. DiRienzo reports to Night Shift Distributing COO Jeff Glennon.
“Justin has been with us for four years, coming from another wholesaler and working his way up from delivery driver,” Burns said. “Pretty pumped about his growth over the years.”
A little more than a year ago, Night Shift began selling its beer in Connecticut via Sarene Craft Beer Distributors. Burns explained that Sarene was aware of Night Shift’s plans to eventually self-distribute in the state and released the brands back to the company last fall.
“They were willing to help seed the market,” he said. “So we’ll have Night Shift on the truck, as well as we have a few suppliers coming with us as well to Connecticut.”
Burns declined to name those suppliers at this time.
“In an ideal world, we’re looking to hopefully be a sort of one-stop shop for a lot of like-minded suppliers where they can work with one centralized person for Connecticut and Massachusetts,” he said.
The original plan was to start distributing in the state as soon as Night Shift paused distribution with Sarene, but due to federal and state licensing, there was a gap for about a year.
Additionally, Night Shift Distributing will look to take on local brands in Connecticut. Currently, the company distributes products for one Connecticut-based brand in Massachusetts, non-alcoholic beer maker Athletic Brewing Company.
“I think it’s important to have some strong local brands in the book to be successful,” Burns said.
As far as Night Shift products in the Connecticut market, Burns said they’d like to see core offerings such as Santilli IPA, Whirlpool pale ale, Nite Lite, and Hoot hard seltzer as the drivers in the market but are willing to give retailers whatever they want.
Night Shift Distributing has sold around 80,000 cases each of the last three months, Burns said.
“So we’re doing about a quarter million cases a quarter right now,” Burns said, “which is kind of crazy. I mean to be a million case wholesaler in Massachusetts is something that I think we only dreamed about years ago as a possibility and certainly shows that it’s much more than a hobby business for us. This is really the growth engine for us and part of the secret sauce.”
How much of that beer is Night Shift’s? Burns said one of the goals has been to get Night Shift’s volume below 50% of the wholesaler branch’s business in order to ensure the business isn’t 100% dependent on one supplier — Night Shift.
“We started at 100% when we launched in 2016,” Burns said. “Then last year, I think we finished around 76% or so of Night Shift volume.”
This year, Night Shift Brewing products account for 63% of Night Shift Distributing’s dollars and 58% of its volume.
Burns said chain accounts such as Whole Foods and Total Wine, as well as independent retailers pushed for Night Shift to sell beer full-time in Connecticut.
“It’s pretty exciting to think that it started all with delivering beer out of the back of my Subaru and now it’s a multi-state business, which shows how far we’ve come,” Burns said.
Burns added that one of the early criticisms of Night Shift when the company entered the distribution business was to stick to brewing beer.
“In Massachusetts IRI liquor store data, we’re the No. 2 brand behind Boston Beer, and I think that shows that we’ve been successful, we’ve been able to build a brand and not in a traditional way,” he said. “So we’re looking to definitely recreate that in Connecticut.”
Beyond its home state of Massachusetts and Connecticut, Night Shift products are currently sold in three countries around Portland, Maine, by Nappi Distributors; New Hampshire via Amoskeag Beverages; and New York City with Sarene.