Michigan’s Atwater Brewery has realigned its distribution network in its home state, moving the brand from Kalamazoo-based Imperial Beverage into the M1 Network of 10 MillerCoors wholesalers. In a conversation with Brewbound, Atwater owner Mark Rieth said Imperial Beverage had sold the brand across approximately 70 percent of the state since 2011.
In our latest edition of People Moves: Caitlin Braam, the president of Seattle Cider Company and Two Beers Brewing, will depart the organization at the end of the month. Constellation Brands also confirmed that Dave Mills, chief sales officer of the company’s Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits brand, will depart the organization at the end of August.
In this week’ edition of Last Call: Lagunitas partners with CannaCraft on a beer and vaping products; Long Trail sues Burton Snowboards; and more.
It’s been about 18 months since Southern Tier Brewing Company and Victory Brewing combined operations under the family-office backed Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV) and today, the two breweries announced plans to open a jointly run innovation brewery and taproom in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Earlier this month, online alcohol marketplace Drizly promised to share regular insights gleaned from thousands of daily transactions that occur on the company’s e-commerce platform. Drizly’s first significant finding, and one that should be of interest to U.S. craft brewery owners, is that millennial consumers — at least those using its booze-to-your-door delivery app – have been steadily shifting their dollars toward macro brews and corporately owned craft brands since 2015.
In a move that that will triple Heritage Brewing Company’s capacity, the company today said it would spend $8.9 million to build a 35,000 sq. ft. production facility and brewpub in Manassas, Virginia.
Beer makers aren’t the only ones feeling the effects of a craft beer slowdown. Yakima, Washington-based hop broker 47 Hops LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company said last week.
After a decade in business, Kansas’ largest independent craft brewery has found itself squeezed between national brands and taproom-room focused microbreweries — both of which are chipping away at the company’s local market share at a time when the industry has grown hypercompetitive (more than 5,600 U.S. brewing companies are now in operation across the U.S.).
Less than a year after it was acquired by Dutch beer maker Bavaria N.V., Latis Imports has announced plans to mutually end a sales agency agreement with Radeberger Gruppe USA (RGUSA) that began in January 2014. In a press release, Latis Imports, which was founded in 2007 and imports products from Palm Belgian Craft Brewers and Rodenbach, said the partnership with RGUSA would conclude on September 30, 2017.
Rich Pascucci, who most recently served as the chief growth officer for Pabst Brewing Company, has been tapped to help lead Evolution Spirits, makers of Monkey Rum. Pascucci joined Evolution Spirits earlier this month and will serve as its chief growth officer and head of sales. The company was co-founded by television personality Zane Lamprey and is backed by Vita Coco co-founder Mike Kirban, former Vitaminwater CMO Rohan Oza and other notable beverage industry insiders.
After discontinuing its experimental line of “Side Trip” ciders, New Belgium Brewing Company has signed an agreement with Seattle Cider Company to distribute the company’s products throughout the greater Fort Collins, Colorado, market.
Brian “BK” Krueger will join the Boulder, Colorado-headquartered company as director of sales and marketing. Krueger, who has plenty of experience in the Colorado market after a 16-year career as sales executive with New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, will fill the role being left by Dustin LeMoine, who the company is promoting to Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately.
A group consisting of four former New England beer wholesalers now own the vast majority of Massachusetts’ Wormtown Brewery. The beer company, which opened in Worcester, Mass. in 2010, today announced that co-founder Tom Oliveri has sold his remaining interest in the brewery to three former beer distribution executives – Richard Clarke, Jay Clarke and Kary Shumway.
It’s been less than two months since the Brewers Association (BA) – a not for profit trade organization representing the interests of small and independent U.S. craft beer companies – unveiled the “independent craft brewer seal,” a special badge aimed at helping member breweries distinguish their beers from those owned by multinational corporations. As of press time, 1,789 breweries had embraced the seal, agreeing to display it across packaging and marketing materials, on websites, and in taproom windows, among other places.
