Firestone Walker pulling out of Rhode Island

Thanks for insider perspective. I'm surprised that out-of-region places don't do something like a 4 time a year drop of their some of their beers rather than just becoming another regular offering on the shelves that is taken for granted. It seems like you could maintain some cache of being exotic and special that way, kind of how seasonals like Celebration remain a somewhat big deal at least partially because they're not always available.

Is that sort of arrangement difficult from an out-of-region distribution standpoint? Or is my hunch just not very likely to be correct?

 

Firestone basically did this with Double Jack. They discontinued their beloved year-round double IPA because of slowing (but still fine) sales and instead did a rotating series of them (Fortem, Adversus, Inferos, Wookus). It works well until you hit a couple duds in a row, then distributors get a bit squeamish.

I think you were suggesting doing it for their continued core products, though, and that's something a brewery would have to crunch the numbers on. Some breweries (especially ones using the more niche distributors) do stuff like that, especially ones that do occasional mobile canning. But in most cases you're going to sell more beer if it's always available everywhere in the market. A brewery would have to conclude that brand image and freshness was more important for future sales than presumably higher current sales. It seems fair to wonder if a core product would be considered special enough by consumers to even sell quickly enough to not sit on shelves for a few months, ruining the effect (you'd probably have to restrict supply, which means even less sales). The model of Luponic or Leo vs. Ursus is probably more likely to succeed. There are a few other challenges, especially in corporate chain stores and bars and the like where they might lose shelf/tap space permanently. That all being said, there are probably current breweries where this should be the correct strategy.

 

Thanks for the perspective and info. My specific thought in terms of core vs. "special" beers when I was writing this were things like Deschutes Fresh Squeezed and Bell's Two Hearted (since there has been talk of them expanding east). Those are core beers that also have some cache and name recognition, so it could be something people look forward to a couple times a year without it getting lost in the shuffle after an initial burst of excitement.

But that's an interesting point about how an always available beer that sits for a while might still sell more in total than if you sold it quickly but less frequently.

 

They pulled out of RI but in 2018 have added North Carolina, Minnesota, and Indiana. 3 very beer centric states all of which aren't tiny like RI. In 2016 they were the 6th largest craft brewery and in 2017 they were the 5th (as Duvel in both years). Their BA beers are highly sought after. They have revamped their core line over the last 2 years to remove or slow down their less popular beers and added new beers which are more "modern". I can't find the link but I believe they were one of the shining stars of the bigger breweries in 2016/2017 because they continued to grow while all others around them were losing market share.

@Auror brings up some good points though regarding their sales process and the competition at least with regards to their non BA beers. Their IPA's are good but hard for them to compete with local beers especially when they aren't making that connection to drinkers as he mentioned. I used to buy every Luponic Distortion release but now with so many other options every day I generally pass it by. I will always buy their BA releases when they are available but more and more I walk by their normal beers. Though I did buy Mocha Merlin in a can recently. So while I don't think them pulling out of RI means anything and I don't think they are having problems, I do think they will start to have difficulties on their non special releases.