Business Rules – American Craft Beer’s Changing Landscape

Last week was huge for craft beer news. Lagunitas forged a 50/50 partnership with Heineken. MillerCoors swept down and purchased a majority stake in the San Diego based Saint Archer. And Stone announced that Greg Koch would be stepping away from his daily activities as CEO and become the company’s Executive Chairman, where he will concentrate on the company’s overall direction, including the development of the new east coast brewery in Richmond and the opening of their Berlin-based European hub.

The craft beer industry is accelerating and evolving – and increasingly, Business Rules.

, Business Rules – American Craft Beer’s Changing LandscapeLagunitas Rules

As we wrote last week, the fact that Lagunitas would agree to sell 50 percent of their company to a Dutch major is hardly surprising. Tony Magee, Lagunitas’ hard-charging CEO, has been amping things up for a while now. Founded in 1993, Lagunitas is now sixth-largest craft brewer and one of craft its most widely distributed. Having opened a second brewery in Chicago, Lagunitas has increased their production six-fold. They did 100,000 barrels in 2010, almost 600,000 in 2014 and they expect to produce over 800,000 barrels of beer by the end of the year according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. With talk of them building yet another brewery in California, this is a company that could clearly benefit from a cash infusion. And this deal affords them both resources, and perhaps even more important to them, global reach.

, Business Rules – American Craft Beer’s Changing LandscapeMillerCoors Rules

Coming just two days after the Dutch brewing giant bought into Lagunitas, MillerCoors, the second biggest beer company in America, purchased a majority stake in the San Diego-based Saint Archer Brewing, through their Tenth and Blake “craft division.” Just as in the Heineken – Lagunitas hook-up this move is part of Big Beer’s accelerating efforts to reach the craft beer consumer and tap into a category that “generated 19.6 billion in retail sales last year,” according to Fortune.

While nowhere as noteworthy as the Lagunitas in scale (or, dare we say, credibility) – picking off (and we do mean picking off – this was a majority stake) a San Diego-based brewery of even minor renown resonates. 

Just as with the Lagunitas/Heineken deal, financial details of MillerCoors/Saint Archer alignment were not disclosed. And like Lagunitas, Saint Archer released the requisite disclaimer that this near total acquisition by the beer behemoth would in no way not affect the quality of its beers – so there’s that.

, Business Rules – American Craft Beer’s Changing LandscapeStone Rules

As with the Lagunitas announcement, we were hardly surprised to hear that Greg Koch would stepping down as Stone’s CEO, and assuming the new title of Executive Chairman. Koch who co-founded the company along with Steve Wagner in 1996, now oversees a ginormous empire that now has more than 1,100 employees, operates two brewery-bistros and a network of Southern California tasting rooms, according to the San Diego Union-Union Tribune. The ninth biggest craft brewer in the nation, Stone defines craft beer success and is on track to sell more than 300,000 barrels of beer this year. 

Colorful, outspoken and sometimes abrasive, Koch, long the face of Stone Brewing, hinted at restlessness last year, when he went entirely off the grid and took a sabbatical touring the world, only to return to his fast-growing company four months later.

Overseeing the ninth biggest craft brewer in the nation has got to be insanely demanding – and with the development of the new East Coast brewery in Richmond and the opening of their Berlin-based European hub, we suspect that Koch is welcoming being kicked upstairs.

But his transition is emblematic of the transition the industry is increasingly experiencing – a world where Business Rules more than ever before…no matter what you’re drinking.

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