"Hangar 24 brewery lays off two dozen employees during restructuring"

Sounds like they are making rational decisions to have a work force with the skills to match their business plan. They did hire 50 new employees.

 

Sounds like they got rid of people who were underperforming.

 

A birdie told me "the produce whatever it was they shared space/location with at their oc location had got popped by the health department". Among many other rumors I've heard as well

 

Talk about click bait. Doesnt look like a financial crisis at all. More like the opposite.

 

As previous mentioned, undergoing layoffs doesn't necessarily mean the company's in bad health.

 

I hope this means they'll make better beer too. Most of their beers are pretty meh.

 

My brother had been working for Hangar 24 for the past 8-9 months before being "let go" along with the other few dozen employes. I've been hearing about how bad their human resource department is (not rembersing Cicerone, not supplying company shirts, etc). Hangar had hired 50 employees, but those couple dozen which were let go had mostly been apart of those 50 new employees. My brother had just moved to Sales Rep before being let go, making him the newest Rep and bottom of the list. Before I go on forever, let me wrap this up simply. They were not letting go the trouble makers or poor performance workers. They aren't rehiring 50 new employees. In fact (I've been told by my brother) some employees have received up to $10,000 pay cuts. I lost a lot of respect for Hangar while my brother was working their over time. But now I almost cringe at the sight of their beer. Any company who can't treat their employees with respect and decency don't deserve my buisness.

P.S. They have, and definitely practiced, the ability to fire people and give no knowledge of why they have been fired. That's how my brother got moved up to sales representative.

 

Hire 50, fire 24, last time I checked that's a net of 26 employees.. so I'm going to nix 'financial crisis', and chalk it up to 'growing pains'. Hangar has produced more beer every year since they've been in business. Sorry about your brother being let go, but sometimes it's easier to break the news to someone with 'finances' instead of 'we don't need you now'. Been on the firing end, people have just as hard a time breaking bad news as they do receiving it.

They need to learn how to staff/resource manage. These folks were hired intentionally, the founder recognizes that it was the wrong purpose - they cleaned house, plain and simple. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes and fix the HR issues - which the hiring process is a major part of.

 

They fired 24 employees? Better rename themselves Hangar 0.

 

Their barrel program is very, very good. Their staple beers? Drinkable, about on the level with with any other brewery in the greater LA area.

 

http://hangar24brewery.com/news_jobs.htm

I am getting in on the Atmosphere & Safety Coordinator position. I love atmosphere.

 

Producing more beer every year does not guarantee that the brewery is profitable. Sometimes expansion equals debt which results in closed.doors.

 

Atmosphere & Safety Coordinator=Bouncer. I love how things are worded.

 

I see what cha did there

 

I have more hurt feelings about the company then my brother does. He's more excited now to work for a company that appreciates him. Hangar is not that kind of place from what I've been told and heard from many different people (not just those who have been let go). 50-24 does equal 26, but not in this instance. My bro got moved up after one of the "most beer knowledgable" sales reps was let go with no explanation. Not to mention countless others I heard about in the time he worked there. So it's more of 50-(24+X) possibly still positive but like I mentioned before employees who had been working at the brewery for several years even received large pay cuts... What's the need for that? I believe they expanded to quickly and needed to let people go, so they took the easy route and let go new people and deducted pay from those still working.

Hangar 24's been a great staple in the craft beer industry here in Redlands, and although some beers lack quality in my taste (orange wheat, Amarillo, Betty) I think they do make some great beers (Essence, hammerhead and vinaceous being my favorites). I would love to see them succeed and make better and better beers, that is what all beer lovers should want for any brewery! But I will say I'm ashamed if they are trying to cover up a financial crisis with "they just weren't meant for this bus ride" kinda mumbo jumbo. Take responsibility and treat employees and former employees with respect. I'm sure you can agree with that kind sir/ma'am.

 

Does it concern anyone else that they made a huge round of layoffs at almost they exact same time they just got a huge cash infusion by launching a reserve society?

 

Obviously opinions vary, but are you drinking beer from Beachwood, El Segundo or The Bruery? They are making arguably world class beers. I'd also rate Eagle Rock, Noble and Bootleggers ahead of them. That's just off the top of my head, and then you factor in the superior Ventura county beers being brewed much closer to LA than Hangar 24 like Institution or Surf.

I'd personally rate them on par with Golden Road - drinkable, sure, but nothing memorable.

I think I would agree with you on Hangar beers - just not on the quality of other "Greater LA" beers.

 

Hangar launched just prior to the LA craft beer revival. At first, they were brewing some of the better beer from that are, simply because there wasn't much being brewed there. I somewhat feel like this is a situation where a brewery didn't really have to perfect it's recipes or pay much attention to the changing tastes of their customers- but within 2-3 years several LA area breweries which are younger (or have recently started/increased distribution) have far surpassed the quality of beer that Hangar 24 is making.

I don't know enough about the company to pinpoint why they laid off half their staff, but usually a layoff like this is preceded by a few years of bad management (not necessarily from a financial standpoint- a spot-on financial record can be brought down by poor management decisions in other departments)- it's no small feat for a small company to lay off half their staff, from an HR standpoint alone (holy paperwork, Batman). Bottom line- stable, healthy companies don't do this, especially in the craft beer industry.

It's worth discussing not for gossips sake but for the industry's sake. If another brewery can learn from this before it happens to them, then it's a step in the right direction.