Shelton Brothers to cease operations

Discussion in 'Beer News' started by Scottsbeer, Nov 5, 2020.

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  1. Chewbacca

    Chewbacca Aspirant (237) Jan 22, 2013 Massachusetts
    Trader

    Sorry to revive an old thread, I don't know how I didn't hear about this until now. Good f'ing riddance. These guys had a notoriously bad reputation here in MA, and it looks like pretty much everywhere else. They hoarded 3f, Cantillon, Fantom and other very desired beers and only gave them to select few accounts, mostly in Boston. No surprise to see they had a warehouse full of 3F collecting dust. The decline of imports didn't force them into bankruptcy, their terrible business model and practice did. Most stores flat out refused to work with them, or reluctantly did in hopes of getting just a small amount of said beers above. If you talked to any store manager who dealt with them they never had anything good to say about them. /endrant
     
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  2. rgordon

    rgordon Pooh-Bah (2,677) Apr 26, 2012 North Carolina
    Pooh-Bah Society

    This is dead on the money. I have a great deal of business experience with both companies and B United is far superior and will persist..
     
  3. AElfwine_Nerevar

    AElfwine_Nerevar Savant (1,120) Nov 16, 2018 Connecticut
    Trader

    I would love to see them pick up fantome, 3F, and cantillion. I've heard there are some issues with the way the importer would have to individually negotiate with and/or buy out any distributor that had contracts for those breweries before they could move any product.
     
  4. rgordon

    rgordon Pooh-Bah (2,677) Apr 26, 2012 North Carolina
    Pooh-Bah Society

    There is a myriad of bureaucratic arrangements for any quick transition and change of importers and state distributors. It can be done and I know a lawyer who knows how to expedite these matters. Anyway, when I was in the business foreign exporters and particularly brewers were often very frustrated with the immensity of America and did not really understand 50 states is like 50 countries. I did this stuff for years and learned to like doing it. My wife became expert in international and American peculiarities. including shipping, finance, and exchange rates. It's a detailed and expensive business. We shall see how this all unfolds. Shelton began sinking when Will Shelton left to play music and brew beer. Dan was abrasive at best.....
     
  5. Treyliff

    Treyliff Grand Pooh-Bah (4,711) Aug 10, 2010 West Virginia
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    They threw a helluva festival though. Until they screwed everyone out of their money on the last one. :rolling_eyes:
     
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  6. zid

    zid Grand Pooh-Bah (3,058) Feb 15, 2010 New York
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Do you have a link for that story?
     
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  7. Treyliff

    Treyliff Grand Pooh-Bah (4,711) Aug 10, 2010 West Virginia
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I do not, but they basically told everybody in an email that they had filed for bankruptcy and that they weren't refunding us for our festival tickets. Luckily I filed a claim with my credit card company and they reimbursed me.
     
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  8. PatKorn

    PatKorn Zealot (685) Aug 30, 2007 Hawaii

    Where was the festival going to be held?
     
  9. M-Fox24

    M-Fox24 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,617) Mar 17, 2013 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

  10. Treyliff

    Treyliff Grand Pooh-Bah (4,711) Aug 10, 2010 West Virginia
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    Charlotte
     
  11. zid

    zid Grand Pooh-Bah (3,058) Feb 15, 2010 New York
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

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  12. rgordon

    rgordon Pooh-Bah (2,677) Apr 26, 2012 North Carolina
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Not that it really means anything, but Dan Shelton is or was a lawyer.
     
  13. SSGCujo

    SSGCujo Pundit (949) Jul 12, 2016 Wisconsin

    Does anyone know what importers have picked up any of the Shelton brands?
     
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  14. MissionWoodlandHills

    MissionWoodlandHills Initiate (0) Jul 2, 2010 California

    While I'm not intimately familiar with the post-Shelton goings on, from what I've heard just from keeping my ears to the scanner and speaking with other, similar importers is that the rights to distribution for many of these breweries in the portfolio belong to the bank(s) with which the importer was indebted to; historically, these banks massively overvalue what one may pay to pick up these rights in order to recoup a profit from the closure. These distribution rights can stay up in the air indefinitely, from what has been relayed to me.

    If you are thinking to yourself, "X Importer has been doing fantastic things with their portfolio, and Y breweries from the Shelton portfolio would make a great addition!", I have reached out to numerous 'X importers' you can fill-in-the-blank with and the universal sentiment seems to be it's too expensive to pick up even a single brewery from Shelton's portfolio. It's about to be one year on, however, perhaps sentiment may change; I am not hopeful.
     
  15. unlikelyspiderperson

    unlikelyspiderperson Grand Pooh-Bah (3,862) Mar 12, 2013 California
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I believe that a Drie Fonteinen newsletter linked up thread mentioned that they would be moving forward with Lime Ventures as their new importer.
     
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  16. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
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    Yeah, a quick look at TTB COLA's for Lime Ventures (damn, that url makes you do a double take = lvbev) also turns up beers from Achel, Fantome, Cantillon, Nogne, Blaugies, La Senne, Freigeist and De Ranke (can't say I remember Shelton's portfolio well enough to say which are formerly their brands).
     
  17. unlikelyspiderperson

    unlikelyspiderperson Grand Pooh-Bah (3,862) Mar 12, 2013 California
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Do you know if all of those are brands they will import? I believe they were handling distribution for those brands in CA prior to Shelton going under but do the COLA's indicate an importer?
     
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  18. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Yeah, the COLA's are as the brands' importer, under Lime Venture's US Permit # CA-I-21508:
    CA = California-based company, "I" = Importer.
    (no COLA necessary for distributors).
    F'r'example:
    [​IMG]

    That is not to say that other importer(s) might not also import some of the brands - it is not as common as it once was, but there are cases where a foreign brewery has more than 1 US import deal, usually divided up by region, the best-known example is when Corona has two importers, Barton Beer for most of the western half of the US and Gambrinus for the eastern half + Texas.
     
    #258 jesskidden, Jul 4, 2021
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2021
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  19. unlikelyspiderperson

    unlikelyspiderperson Grand Pooh-Bah (3,862) Mar 12, 2013 California
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    That is good to hear. My beer store buddy speaks glowingly of the folks at Lime as distributors. They should be much better stewards of these brands than Shelton ever was
     
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  20. zid

    zid Grand Pooh-Bah (3,058) Feb 15, 2010 New York
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Ivbev - :grin:
    Yep, those were Shelton brands.
    That might be happening here as well. Freigeist had a recent beer imported by Twelve Percent.

    Lime Ventures distributed Shelton brands in CA and Remarkable Liquids (Twelve Percent) distributed Shelton brands in NY. It sure looks like some brands are potentially finding new importers by staying in the Shelton network. I guess we might see how well a California distributer will function as an importer.
     
    Bitterbill likes this.
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