When Stone Brewing turned to crowdfunding by launching an Indiegogo campaign to help finance its German expansion this past summer, the company also triggered a maelstrom of anger, with people appalled that a profitable brewery would turn to its fans to ask for a handout. The squall of vitriol, though, was a mere sunshower when compared with the cash that rained down on the brewery.
In a follow-up earnings call on Thursday, Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) executives expounded on third quarter results and discussed the increasingly competitive craft beer landscape.Total CBA depletion volumes grew 6 percent compared to the third quarter in 2013. Year-to-date depletion totals are now up 8 percent.
10 Barrel co-founder Jeremy Cox said the decision to sell was driven largely by his company’s rapid growth and the need for a more mature infrastructure. “We had some challenges growing the business,” he said “About three months ago, we realized we needed to find a strategic partner to help us with that.”
Smuttynose Brewing yesterday announced it will begin distributing beer to Arizona per an agreement with Arizona Beer and Cider Company, a new wholesale outfit based in Phoenix. Though this is Summtynose’s first foray into Arizona, it’s not the first time the company has done business with the founders of Arizona Beer and Cider, Jim and Jason Ebel.
In an off-beat quest to upend Prohibition-era regulations that many brewers in the state decry as overly burdensome, the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild (GCBG) has launched a crowdfunding campaign in hopes of hiring a lobbyist to work on behalf of the state’s craft beer industry. The Guild has already tapped the services of Atlanta’s Thrash-Haliburton, a government affairs firm, but now plans to use the funds raised on Indiegogo to bring them on full-time.
Reyes Beverage Group today announced it would acquire South Florida’s Gold Coast Beverage Distributors in a blockbuster deal that brings another 27 million cases to a Reyes Group that, through its 12 wholesale outfits across the country, already sells more than 100 million cases annually. Once complete, the deal would make Reyes comparable in size to the largest distributor in the U.S., Anheuser-Busch InBev, with around 140 million cases.
Figueroa Mountain Brewing, one of California’s faster-growing, but relatively unknown, craft breweries, has announced a slew of expansion plans that include a new international presence, adding three new taprooms and turning over distribution rights to a local beer wholesaler. The company plans to start contract brewing in Germany within six months while it searches for a location to build its own facility in the Bavarian region of the country.
Harpoon Brewery today announced it will promote Charlie Story, the Boston-based company’s current vice president of marketing, to the position of president. Storey, who joined the company in 1996, will oversee marketing, retail and festival initiatives and also manage the brewery’s distribution arm.
There’s a difference between being coastal and being on the coast. That’s a difference that Pelican Brewing has long exploited, as visitors to its beachside pub and brewery in Pacific City, Ore. can dig their toes in the sand, pint in hand, without straying from the premises. In a state that needs no help selling itself as a craft beer destination, Pelican’s immaculate location has for years given the company a leg to stand on that was uniquely its own.
Every champion golfer comes to The Brew Hub imbued with a towering source of inspiration. It starts as a solitary journey, but it is one that no golfer, if he dreams of becoming a craft brewer, makes alone. For Keegan Bradley, a boy from Woodstock, VT., it was a lager, brewed with the comforting guidance of the legendary Dr. Paul Farnsworth.
Here’s the good news: Brewbound pored over the latest IRI spreadsheet so you didn’t have to. Here’s the bad news (if you can even call it that): Craft growth actually slowed during the latest four-week period, ending October 5, 2014.
The statement “I’m going blond” doesn’t usually imply the long term. Maybe a brunette seeks brief, superficial change to counter the monotony of stylistic routine. Perhaps she just wants to look like Kim Novak. Or Lance Bass. But no matter the motive, going blond is typically seen as something temporary. It remains to be seen if the beer industry should consider Guinness’ recent release of Guinness Blonde American Lager as an act of whimsy.
How do you earn wholesaler attention if you’re a small craft beer brand trying to compete in today’s crowded marketplace? “Elbow grease and shoe leather,” says John Bryant, a partner at No-Li Brewhouse, based in Spokane, Washington. Make that axel grease. Bryant will put about 50,000 miles on his truck this year, driving all over the Pacific Northwest to hand-sell his company’s portfolio.
When Yuengling announced it would be launching into Massachusetts and Rhode Island earlier this year, Narragansett Beer president Mark Hellendrung expected sales to take a hit. The question was whether it would sink the brand. Hellendrung feared that sales of his company’s flagship lager — which makes up about 75 percent of ‘Gansett’s total production — would decline.
