Stoup Brewing and Day One launch new Washington distribution company
Oregon’s Day One Distribution and Washington’s Stoup Brewing have joined forces to launch Stoup Distro.
Brad Benson, Robyn Schumacher (in front) and Lara Zahaba (top left) are co-owners of Stoup Brewing and Stoup Distro. Robby Roda (of Day One Distribution and Stoup Distro is top right), and Jason Bass (top row center), is Director of Wholesale Operations for Stoup Brewing and a partner in Stoup Distribution.
Seattle’s Stoup Brewing has built a reputation as one of the best, cleanest, and most consistent brands in Washington, and cultivated the largest self-distribution business in the region. After finding success selling their own beers direct to bottle shops, restaurants and bars for the past 9 years, Stoup co-owner Brad Benson wanted to be able to help fellow small brewers looking to stay independent from large distributor contracts. So Brad reached out to someone who had already pulled off a similar disruptive business model in Portland, Day One Distribution founder Robby Roda.
“The idea was to look around to some of the smaller brands that didn’t want to enter into a long-term contract and sign their wholesale life away. Maybe it’s all of their distribution, or quarterly drops into the market from out of town just as Day One Distribution does in Oregon now,” says Stoup Brewing and Distro co-owner Brad Benson
Benson and Roda started talking about forming a new Washington distributor pre-covid, based on their existing relationship that saw Stoup beers occasionally trickle into the Portland market via Day One Distribution. They thought something similar could work in the evergreen state and started working to make it a reality in early 2021. It took a year to navigate legal and licensing hurdles of the 3-tier system that separates producers from retail by putting a wholesaler in the middle. Because a brewery is not supposed to own a distributor, Benson, and his partners Lara Zahaba and Robyn Schumacher also own Stoup Brewing they had to separate the entities via a parent corporation that counts the brewery as one asset and and as a partial owner of the distro company alongside Roda, and new partner Jason Bass. Together they have quietly launched Stoup Distro.
“He’s really good at what he does,” says Benson of Day One founder Robby Roda. “I don’t know anything about distribution other than selling our own beer in the market.”
In turn, Roda finds the business partnership and friendship an invaluable asset to their new startup, saying “It’s great having Brad and the other partners from Stoup involved because they are a brewery, they know how to structure something how they would like. When we talk to the breweries they know Brad, and he is doing exactly the same thing they are doing, so it makes the conversations easier.”
Stoup Brewing has remained independently self-distributed from their start in 2013. Jason Bass has been with them since the beginning. Building their self-distribution business was difficult, but they now have around 400 different active accounts between Tacoma and the greater Seattle area. That devoted following is from the retailers and hospitality as much as from the consumer, and is built on relationships that Jason Bass has fostered and can tap into for Stoup Distro. Bass and the Stoup Distro team promise a more nimble service with less red tape, and since they quietly launched earlier this year they have already seen increases in sales for their own beer, while being able to promote and sell others without fear of competition. So when a sales person is coming into bar XYZ to see if they want the latest Frozen Fresh Hop IPA from Stoup, they can also offer a new school smoothie sour from a limited drop brewery coming in from out of state.
“We are trying to bring in things that aren’t already there, things that people may have heard about and are excited about, even things that they might not have heard about but that we can introduce because it’s great beer. We are just doing it as it makes sense,” says Robby Roda.
Some might wonder what the benefit is of using a much smaller company that doesn’t have the resources of a NW Beverage or Kendall’s Pioneer Beverage with their massive sales teams, generous cold storage, and major grocery store placements. Benson and Roda acknowledge that the benefits they offer aren’t a perfect fit for everyone, but great for brands looking for a more custom service and not to flood the marketplace. It’s easy to get caught up in sales pressures under large wholesalers and get left out in the cold when they get bought, or lost in the shuffle after a major new product or brand enters the market via acquisition or expansion.
“The small or medium sized breweries are just getting hammered,” says Benson. Stories of breweries getting dropped by their wholesaler after they are acquired are becoming more frequent and that can easily lead to a downward spiral the brewery cannot get out of. “Their business plan was to have a distributor, and if they get bought out, the big one just takes the top 8 brands and the others are just looking for cold storage, a delivery van, a sales person, and distro, and they just cant do it.”
As far as the larger wholesale playing field, Roda thinks a lot of aspects are up in the air adding a volatility and unpredictability that’s toxic for the small producers. “Things are changing a lot, I’m not quite sure what to expect. As things go the way they are in Washington, I am sure there is going to be a lot more consolidation up there.”
That’s the main reason Stoup Distribution is staying small and picky with the brands they represent. Part of the impetus began with Portland, Oregon’s Wayfinder Beer and constant peppering and encouragement from their sales manager Lindsay Allen who wanted to take the hassle of delivery to Seattle off of their hands. Wayfinder is now one of the first and few brands signed up with Stoup Distro and a perfect example of how their more flexible business model works. In Wayfinder’s case the brewery does all the sales themselves, then simply ships the beer to Stoup Distro with the orders. But with Seattle local brand Standard Brewing they send out their own sales sheet, and the distributor picks up on Wednesday and has all the beer delivered to accounts by Friday. In contrast an out of state brand like Fieldwork Brewing or Drekker will ship beer in to Stoup Distro and the wholesaler will pre-sell most or all of the beer for them, and that flexibility speaks to the disruptive nature of Day One and now Stoup Distro to break out of the stiff contracts and way of doing things at larger wholesalers.
“When we started talking about the distro thing the goal was to be very brewery focused, so they are not getting screwed. Or a situation they are not ready for. So when we do contract negotiations with breweries we hear what they have to say and make sure it’s beneficial for them and not just one sided for us.” says Roda.
Since many out-of-state breweries have been getting beer into Washington direct to consumer via subscription based independent web retailer Tavour, they already had licensing complete for Washington. It’s very easy for them to sign-up and ship for wholesale to Stoup Distro by just changing some forms for shipping out of state. It also makes Washington more appealing for Oregon breweries in that they can test the waters and not be locked into something that doesn’t work out.
“The whole Portland / Seattle rivalry or whatever it is, this is an amazing beer market and I just think a lot of people couldn’t get their beer in here because they didn’t like the representation they were going to get. A lot of people are going through Tavour to get beer up here and get it to other markets.” says Benson.
It’s essentially the same philosophy as Day One Distribution had when they launched in 2016, and that other distributors are now trying to emulate. The only differences are that Stoup Distro is in Washington, and is in it’s infancy with a much much smaller portfolio to start out with, yet far more wisdom and structure then Day One had when they got started. It’s a formula set for similar growth as Day One has experienced in Oregon, but their big ambitions aren’t big bucks and world dominance only to sell out later. Stoup Distro quietly launched in March and is operating primarily on word of mouth without even a website or social media handles, they prefer to grow organically on buzz alone just as the small brands they represent have done.
Stoup Distro is now servicing the I-5 corridor from Bellingham to Tacoma with brands like Wayfinder Beer, Standard Brewing, and Fieldwork, with more specialty one in a while drops from rarities like Weldwerks, Pure Project, Drekker, The Brewing Projekt, and others.
