Modern Times expects to be sold via "court-ordered receivership sale"

Discussion in 'Beer News' started by Todd, Apr 6, 2022.

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  1. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    https://www.brewbound.com/news/modern-times-expects-to-be-sold-via-court-ordered-receivership-sale

    From: http://www.moderntimesbeer.com/receivershipupdate

    AN UPDATE ON THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE OF MODERN TIMES

    If you’ve been following us recently, you may know much like many others in the beer and hospitality industry, Modern Times has been through a tough two years—tough enough that we’ve recently had to make major cutbacks to both our personnel and our geographic footprint.

    Let’s focus on the most important thing first. Modern Times remains committed to our drinkers, our brews, and delivering great times when you visit us. Through the challenges, our coworkers, distributors, buyers, drinkers, and patrons have been and continue to be vital to us.

    The intense and rigorous work of restructuring the business coincides with other massive challenges: revitalizing our remaining four tasting rooms and restaurants; struggling with rising gas prices; a constrained trucking and logistics system; and supply chain issues with aluminum cans. As these issues have intensified, so have our concerns about financials, cash flow, and profit.

    Our senior secured lender (AKA bank) tightly monitors the company’s finances and, though we have been working diligently with their officers over the past weeks, they have commenced litigation which we believe will result in a court-ordered receivership sale of Modern Times.

    So, what is a receivership? It’s complicated, but it boils down to this: our bank nominates someone to oversee the sale of the Modern Times business. Once approved by the court, this nominated person, or “receiver,” will be the final word on our financial decisions for the immediate future, and in charge of the sale of the brand to interested parties.

    While this isn’t a comfortable position for any company to be in, a receivership should hopefully allow Modern Times to be sold as a “going concern,” as opposed to “turning off the lights” and liquidating the equipment and inventory. A going concern sale would raise the odds of the new buyer keeping our talented staff, amazing products, and renowned customer experience intact. Obviously, this is not an ideal situation, but across a field of exceedingly difficult choices, it’s the best one available and is far preferable to ceasing operations entirely. We expect this process to move swiftly. Financial situation aside, we have an amazing brand.

    On a more personal note—those of us who have experienced the last two years with Modern Times are absolutely certain of one thing: none of us would still be here if we didn’t care deeply about this brand and believe in its future. This has been an incredibly tough decision in a series of tough decisions; one more difficult message to write in a long line of difficult messages. But we are not done, and we are not giving up. Far from it. We’re still making amazing beer. We’re still roasting amazing coffee. We’re still pressing forward, and we still believe that there are far better days ahead for both our staff and our fans. We thank all of you for your continued support and patronage during these difficult times. It has meant the world to us, and we’re still working hard to make sure it’s rewarded with many more beers, coffees, and good times in the future.

    More to come.

    ###

    Related: Modern Times to close Portland, Oakland, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles locations
     
  2. Resistance88

    Resistance88 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,462) Apr 9, 2015 California
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Everyone saw this coming
     
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  3. Rug

    Rug Grand Pooh-Bah (3,454) Aug 20, 2018 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Yeah for sure. Unfortunate but hopefully potential new owners will keep things the same
     
    maximum12, BrewsOverHoes and Shanex like this.
  4. elNopalero

    elNopalero Grand Pooh-Bah (5,822) Oct 14, 2009 Michigan
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Uuuuf! But not surprised.
     
    BrewsOverHoes likes this.
  5. jandawil48

    jandawil48 Initiate (174) Apr 11, 2016 California

    Rapid expansion followed by Covid lockdowns in a state that doesn't give two sh!ts about businesses...terrible timing. Hope they pull through. It's a great stop when I visit SD.
     
  6. Resistance88

    Resistance88 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,462) Apr 9, 2015 California
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    This shit has to hurt.
    What a year this already is.

    But fuck what do these places that get greedy expect in a free Market. You have what? 8 locations at one point,go fuck yourselves. I hope it gets to a point where we only have LOCAL BREWRIES and none of that bullshit where a brewery expands cuz of hype or sales , but they are allowed to ship countrywide. Shipping restrictions are fuckin stupid.
     
  7. SFACRKnight

    SFACRKnight Grand Pooh-Bah (3,348) Jan 20, 2012 Colorado
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    But... but... but.... what about my trade bait?!
     
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  8. Resistance88

    Resistance88 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,462) Apr 9, 2015 California
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    People use that shit as a bargaining chip too muxh. It needs to die
     
    beerluvr, micada, ericwo and 4 others like this.
  9. honkey

    honkey Maven (1,350) Aug 28, 2010 Arizona
    Trader

    What exactly is bullshit about a brewery trying to expand to meet demand? That doesn't seem greedy at all. People ask for a service and you provide it to them... actually sounds pretty selfless when you say it that way.
     
  10. Resistance88

    Resistance88 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,462) Apr 9, 2015 California
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    You cant always get what you want.
    Deal with it. Travel there. Ask your local to make someshit similar. Many many many ways to deal with "meeting demand"

    :rolling_eyes:
     
  11. dewski312

    dewski312 Devotee (369) May 2, 2009 Connecticut
    Trader

    By that logic, no breweries should ever distribute because you can either "just go there" or "deal with it"
     
  12. Shanex

    Shanex Grand Pooh-Bah (4,960) Dec 10, 2015 France
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

  13. Resistance88

    Resistance88 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,462) Apr 9, 2015 California
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Refer back to my post where i said "they should be allowed to ship all across the country" and again..shipping restrictions are bullshit.
     
  14. hopfenunmaltz

    hopfenunmaltz Pooh-Bah (2,647) Jun 8, 2005 Michigan
    Pooh-Bah

    He can make most anything he wants.
     
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  15. RaulMondesi

    RaulMondesi Grand Pooh-Bah (5,343) Dec 11, 2006 California
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I want a brewery that just sticks to the core that got them where they are. I loved it when I could find fresh Blazing Worlds (original recipe), Fortunate Islands, and then whatever quarterly/seasonal beer they had. Modern Times was like that early on, then they starting tinkering and, more or less, become a high ABV Pastry Stout brewery - well, I can’t forget Fruitlands and their Cucumber Gose or whatever. Oh well. On to the next one.
     
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  16. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,375) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society Pooh-Bah

    There has been some 'promotion' in the past (and currently?) to "Drink Local".

    [​IMG]

    I suppose there is a (significant?) portion of the craft beer consumer base who are locovores and it is important to them that the beer they purchase is from a "local brewery". But perhaps what defines a "local brewery" will vary depending on the beer drinker?

    I will start a new thread, including a poll, to foster further discussion on the topic.

    Cheers!
     
    Shanex, ChicagoJ and TurkeysDrinkBeer like this.
  17. Resistance88

    Resistance88 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,462) Apr 9, 2015 California
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    "Local" = walking distance.

    And not the walking the new lazy bastards think...to me walking distance is 3-4 miles . It's also good for you.
     
  18. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,375) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society Pooh-Bah

    And it has the benefit of working up a powerful thirst!

    [​IMG]

    Cheers!
     
  19. unlikelyspiderperson

    unlikelyspiderperson Grand Pooh-Bah (3,966) Mar 12, 2013 California
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Modern times problem seems to have beenthat they overestimated demand and also seemed to over emphasize their top end luxury beers at the expense of good distribution of their core beers that built their brand.

    Obviously, it's super easy for me to project that insight backwards from the outside. I'm not trying to critique the choices they made for their business, but ultimately they turned out to be bad ones. Covid didn't help, clearly, but it didn't cause this. They made aggressive and risky expansions fueled by large amounts of credit. And it didn't pencil out
     
  20. mitchgx

    mitchgx Crusader (424) Aug 7, 2005 Arizona

    But....they made some *exceptional* big dark beers. It's possible to excel in multiple styles. Having said that, they probably over-did the number of variations they pumped out at large volume. But the real bottom-line is they over-leveraged and over-expanded rather than focusing on their base SD tap-rooms (which are very cool places) and reasonable regional distribution.
     
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