Macbeth lays out the four tenets of Hop Valley’s success in grocery and other chain stores:
#WHO OWNS HOP SPRINGS BREWERY LICENSE#
“To have IPA-focused variety packages on top of that, and big packages the consumer is looking for, it’s basically a license to print money,” Macbeth says. The brewery sold 85% of its beer in retail stores (as opposed to bars, restaurants, and taprooms) before the pandemic, according to Hop Valley’s vice president of sales and marketing, Walter Macbeth. Then, when COVID-19 put a premium on one-stop shopping and large-format packages, Hop Valley’s beer was sold where drinkers were shopping: in chain stores.
Overall sales had already been trending upward going into 2020.
For a company that has long sought a home-grown hit of some kind, now is the time to cash in all of Hop Valley’s equity. Along with the brewery’s already-strong performance in large grocery stores, chain pharmacies, and club stores, Molson Coors’ distributor relationships and marketing dollars could take the brand to the regional or national level. IPA sells more in IRI-tracked stores than the next three style categories combined (seasonal, Pale Ale, and Wheat). Hop Valley had a name and an IPA-Bubble Stash-that Molson Coors bet could be accelerated into a regional or even national brand associated with the Pacific Northwest and with IPA, craft’s best-selling style by a wide margin. “It’s a brewery so generic it resists even keeping in one’s mind.”īut what some might perceive as generic, Molson Coors saw as latent, mass appeal. “Before the Molson Coors sale, they had no reputation,” says Jeff Alworth, the Portland, Oregon-based writer of the blog Beervana and author of several beer books. Founded in 2009, the brewery largely flew under the radar until its acquisition, but has been on a steady climb in recent years, more than doubling sales in IRI-tracked chains since 2016, when it was purchased by then-MillerCoors. Paul Verdu, vice president of Tenth and Blake, Molson Coors’ craft-focused division, says the company has prepared a “substantial” amount of financial backing for a national rollout, but declined to quantify what that meant.įor drinkers outside the Pacific Northwest-and even some within the region-Hop Valley’s boom appears to have come out of nowhere. As part of the rollout, Hop Valley will receive an unprecedented level of marketing support and investment. Hop Valley is currently distributed to 10 states and will see its multinational expansion in spring 2021, bringing its beers across the U.S. Given that such purchasing habits are unlikely to reverse course any time soon, Hop Valley plans to double down on its strategies-on a much larger scale. The brewery has strong chain store placements, offers the 12-packs and variety packs consumers want, and sells at a price point in line with national breweries like Lagunitas Brewing Company, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and New Belgium Brewing. The ways in which COVID-19 has changed how and where consumers shop have only benefited Hop Valley. This growth also speaks to why now is the time to bring the IPA-forward brewery to more outlets. Big plays, smart moves, and otherwise curious indicators of beer's possible future.
Beer is Labor with East Brother Beer Co.Let Go or Get Dragged by Jerard Fagerberg.Ferments at Low Temps by Stephanie Byce.
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