Green Flash Pulls Distribution From 33 States, Eliminates 15 Percent of Workforce

Looks like La is one of them.




Facing increased competition from more than 6,000 U.S. craft breweries, Green Flash Brewing today announced plans to pull distribution from 33 states in a move that will also include a 15 percent reduction of its workforce.

Speaking with Brewbound, Green Flash co-founder Mike Hinkley said the 15-year-old San Diego-headquartered craft brewery had initially built a 50-state footprint with aspirations of being a “heritage” brand, but as thousands of startup breweries opened their doors, and chipped into Green Flash sales, the company was forced to alter its strategy.

“We were doing pretty well close to the breweries, and in some strategic markets we had some strongholds, but we had a lot of territory that was in pretty steady decline,” he said. “Rather than to continue to fight that battle, we took the resources from out there and brought ’em all into a smaller territory — as much as we could, anyway.”

As it retrenches, Green Flash, which also owns Alpine Beer Company, will cede about 18 percent of its wholesale business, Hinkley said.

“We kept about 82 percent of our wholesale trade business,” he said. “We were pretty sparse and in decline in that other territory, so reeling it back to strength. Now we can put our sales and marketing resources into a tighter geographic footprint.”

To supply the remaining 17 states, Green Flash will source production from its two breweries — located in San Diego and Virginia Beach — and distribute to nearby markets. The San Diego facility will ship beer to Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, and Utah, while the Virginia Beach brewery will ship products to Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia.


Hinkley added that he and Green Flash VP of sales Jim Kenny recently reviewed sales reports from the company’s 17-state footprint over the first 11 days of 2018, and they liked the results thus far.

brewbound.com