Oct
15
2016
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Comments Off on Firestone Walker Brewing Company – Press
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Alright folks, pump the brakes a minute. http://www.firestonebeer.com/press-room/index.php?id=68
All is not doom and gloom. Calm down. Stone laid off ~75 employees this week. Craft Brewers Alliance laid off ~40 a couple of weeks ago, Firestone Walker is discontinuing some of their mainstays.
Pump the brakes. The world is not ending.
Why are these breweries messing with your favorite mainstays? Because you quit drinking them. You don’t buy a six pack every other week of Wookey Jack any more. You found a local option that you prefer. Firestones core lineup is not exciting you anymore. You didn’t buy cans of Opal to take to the pool this past summer.
We have ~4300 breweries in the U.S all producing just as much as they can. There is more beer on the shelves than is possible for consumers to consume. Are we near saturation of breweries? absolutely not. Is demand for craft beer slowing, absolutely it is. Some of these breweries projected a continued growth that is very different than what the market has actually shown. They bet on black and they are about to find themselves in the red. Over-expansion is a business tactic that more often than not will bite you in the butt. You have to make sure you have the demand for all this projected new expansion. Especially with your consumers having a whole host of other options and everyone elses expansions.
Do you want to keep your mainstays on the shelves? Then I encourage you to keep buying them. While the latest fru fru adjunct IPA sounds tasty, did you really enjoy it that much? Maybe the next time you go to the store you grab a sixxer of a classic Pale Ale and then maybe a single or two of the newfangled adjunct moo hoo chocolate raspberry IPA.
Keep drinking local, keep supporting your local guys and gals. Keep drinking good beer.
Firestone Walker Brewing Company
Paso Robles, CA—Is it truly a farewell to Wookey Jack, Double Jack and Opal as Firestone Walker Brewing Company steels itself to stop brewing these beloved beers?