AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Anyway you slice it we are grateful for you11/18/2023 Next year, Stuffings would like to sell that volume of beer, but with a much greater portion of sales coming from its home turf. Stuffings says the brewery can sustain itself by producing 2,000 to 2,500 barrels (BBLs) of beer annually, a target it missed in 2019, 2020, and 2021, but hit in 2022 when it brewed 2,015 BBLs, per Brewers Association data. Jester King currently ships some of its beer as far away as Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Florida. “As we’ve seen our out-of-state distribution market spread thinner and thinner and to more and more places and new markets, the feeling is: How sustainable is this?” Stuffings says. While the brewery is grateful for those sales-Stuffings says they were particularly a lifeline during the height of the pandemic-its plan for 2024 is to try to concentrate more of its sales volume closer to home, in central Texas. Jester King works with craft-focused, specialty distributors to sell its beer in 42 states. “It’s been about expanding the number of places we send beer in an effort to meet our sales numbers.” “Our business model as it relates to sales and distribution has been ‘a little bit of beer in a lot of places,’” says Jester King co-founder Jeffrey Stuffings. Over time, out-of-state distribution has become a majority of sales for the business. In early 2023, beers from Austin, Texas-based Jester King Brewery hit shelves 1,400 miles away in Montana, part of a general strategy the company had followed for years. This second installment features three breweries who have expanded sales far beyond their home markets. Read part one-about breweries focused solely on their home states- here. From brewpub-only models to nearly national distribution, these case studies provide lenses through which to understand the complex geography of craft beer sales in 2023. In this two-part Sightlines series, we’ll examine the opportunity-and the obstacles-facing craft breweries as they think about selling their beer through channels wide and narrow. Ahead, how craft breweries large and small are approaching sales expansion today. Some of that expansion is dictated by a desire to maintain production levels while overall craft beer sales decline: If beer sales aren't growing at home, breweries have to look further afield. This doesn’t mean craft breweries are expanding their sales geography in 2023, however they’re just doing so more carefully and through new models, including ecommerce. At the end of the day, right now, the craft market isn’t growing volume.” “It used to be we were just turning markets on-just sign the contract, and ship the beer out there. “The game has totally changed,” says Nick Firestone, chief operating officer of Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles, California. If small breweries want to grow sales volume (or even maintain what they already have) and feel maxed out in their home markets, that has typically meant looking to new geographies in which to sell their beer. In short: Sales growth in craft beer is hard to come by. also growing, each taproom gets a smaller slice of that pie. The amount of packaged craft beer sold at grocery and other chain retail is shrinking: Over the most recent 52-week period tracked by market research company Circana, the category is down -6.7% in volume and -2% in dollar sales despite increased prices.ĭraft beer hasn’t rebounded to 2019 levels.Īnd while the total volume of beer sold through brewery taprooms is increasing (by an estimated +6% this year), with the number of breweries in the U.S. In his midyear state-of-the-industry presentation, Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson laid out the current quagmire: Subscribe to Premiumįor many craft breweries, beer volumes aren’t what they used to be, even just five years ago. Big plays, smart moves, and otherwise curious indicators of beer's possible future. From Barons to Barrels with Captain Pabst. Message in a Bottle with Brewery Ommegang.Beer is Labor with East Brother Beer Co.Let Go or Get Dragged by Jerard Fagerberg.Ferments at Low Temps by Stephanie Byce.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |