Sierra Nevada Sampler Pack

Why though? Why do you care? I mean I get that you would like to be able to buy their beers for cheaper but it's not like you are hurting for good available beer options at prices you don't mind. At this.point you need to call the distributor and ask them. I'm sure it would make an interesting thread if they sent you.any useful information but that's where this story is, SN beer is more expensive in PA because.the distributors add more margin than in other states. That is the answer to the eternal question

 

There has been some discussion about how well Sierra Nevada is doing financially. Sierra Nevada has been struggling over the past few years:

“Sierra Nevada has experienced some tough business times over the past few years.

“White takes over a company that narrowly returned to growth in 2018 after two consecutive years of mid-single digit declines. According to Whitney, Sierra Nevada’s sales increased 0.2 percent, which amounted to about 25,000 cases.”

https://www.brewbound.com/news/2019/sierra-nevada-appoints-new-ceo-eyes-5-percent-growth-in-2019

A growth of 0.2% (0.002 as a decimal) is not anything to ‘crow about’ but needless to say it is better than the mid-single digit declines of 2016 and 2017.

Has anybody seen the figures for 2019? Have they come even close to performing as well as they did in 2015?

Cheers!

 

Given that they are a well established and privately held company, their barrelage growth year over year isn't a super useful measure of.their financial help. They could reduce production and become more profitable if they reduced brands.that didn't sell, cut sales staff in regions that didn't perform well, increased efficiency of production, increased on premise/direct sales, etc...

They don't need to show quarterly growth to satisfy shareholders and we have no idea how profitable they were before the contraction years so even at its worst the contraction could very well represent them simply being slightly less profitable, it is no evidence of financial dire straights.

But if it helps yinz to believe that SN's future depends on the unrealized PA sales they could tap into by forcing a lower margin on their distributors in PA then more power to ya

 

Did you read the link I provided above?

“Still, Whitney said he’s bullish on Sierra Nevada’s prospects heading in 2019 and he’s projecting 5 percent growth. He believes that advertising will help turn around Pale Ale’s negative trajectory, and that continued growth for Hazy Little Thing, combined with increased focus on Hop Bullet and Sierraveza, will propel the company forward this year.

“That’s not to say everything’s rosy, because it’s not, but I think our quiver has some nice ammo in there,” he said.

Sierra Nevada was hoping for 5% growth in 2019 because from a financial perspective the previous years were not “rosy”.

Cheers!

 

Of course the company would like to see better performance. But everything not being rosy =\= financial dire straights.

Do you actually believe that SN's finances are such that they are at risk of failing or needing to sell a portion of the business?

 

All that I know is that declining business in 2016 and 2017 is not a 'good thing' and their performance in 2018 of 0.2% growth is lackluster.

You may view things differently but I do not think that appointing a new CEO in October 2018 is a 'coincidence' in this context.

Cheers!

P.S. And since you are the person who brought up "financial dire straights" you are creating a strawman argument in this regard.

 

Of course not, they very clearly weren't happy with their performance and thus appointed a new CEO. My disagreement is simply with the degree of struggle they are experiencing. For a brewery that is available in every market in the country and has been for some time I would imagine that simply maintaining barrelage year over year is an uphill battle. So I'm sure there is plenty of stress for the executives, but I highly doubt they are struggling to keep the lights on. Especially considering that they are in the class of brewery likely to benefit from the current situation

 

Because you have seen their financial reports?

Cheers!

 

No more than you have

We are obviously all speculating

 

Well, here's a long article on Sierra Nevada, based on a Ken Grossman interview, on BMI. Not a lot of info on 2019 results but it sounds like, even with the current crisis, they are still doing OK.

Pretty impressive for a brewery that size with large restaurants, accounting for about 1/3 of their employees, to have not laid off anyone. (If there's any fresh SNPA in those retro labels or Summerfest next time I hit a liquor store, I'm buying).

Most “Difficult” Period Yet for Sierra, Sez Founder Ken;
+10% in Q1; No Layoffs So Far

Damn, this is pretty surprising (but I guess I haven't been beer shopping for awhile now).

 

Wow, I didn’t realize HLT was doing that well. I like it, and it’s about the only one of their beers I see fresh consistently so I guess that makes sense.

 

Thank goodness for HLT. Even so:

"Yet Sierra “planning on potentially being down for the year.”

Cheers!

 

I reported information from the linked article, that isn't "speculating".

Cheers!

 

It also doesn't provide any information about their profitability or long term financial outlook. Which is what the conversation was about. You offered it up as counter to the narrative that SN was doing well financially and in that context it is purely speculative

 

It would seem we have 'run our course' here.

I hope you have a good evening.

Cheers!

 

I suppose so, if you come across anymore info about SN's financials I'd be interested to see. It would.be a pretty bad sign for the whole craft segment if Sierra Nevada were at risk of going under

 

I find it very odd that other brands of beer do not have such a price difference in PA vs other nearby states.

I have no idea how good/bad SN is selling beer anyplace but I do know the more they sell the better it is for them. How many more cases could they sell in PA if they were priced similar to other beers? I bet a substantial amount.

Some here say that SN has answered the question but I honestly don’t think they have. We won’t know and I can’t get a distributor to tell me what they pay, only that they paid more than what I paid out of state, that was around 6 years ago.

When this virus has ended I will talk to a guy that owns a place I shop at. He has much knowledge of the beverage industry and might be able to shed some light.

Till then, we can all just try to get along.


As far as package dating I think most people just buy and don’t even notice. I have friends that don’t look even when I tell them that SingleCut 4 pack they paid $22 for is 8 months old and that’s why it’s not as good as they remember.

Enjoy

 

But they have though

It's fine to assume that they are lying if you want but it just doesn't make any sense. The most obvious answer is that PA distributors think (know?) that they can get more margin on SN products than they can on others. What is the conspiracy here? What is SN gaining from hiding the truth? the price of SN is what it is and they sell what they sell in that state, why would they carve out an extra expensive deal for this one state when their prices everywhere else are largely consistent?