Green Flash Brewing Pulls Out of Oregon & Washington Distribution
San Diego, California based Green Flash Brewing has been one of the biggest success stories in craft beer, but even they are not immune to the more challenging marketplace we have in 2018 as they pull distribution from 33 states including Oregon and Washington. The pull-back includes a fifteen percent decrease in Green Flash's staff. In a recent announcement, the brewery failed to list Oregon and Washington as one of the 18 markets they would stay in.We reached out to Bob Repp, the Vice-President of Specialty Craft at their Oregon distributor GDI and also a former regional sales manager for Green Flash for confirmation, he said:"They are pulling distribution from Oregon and the entire Pacific Northwest unfortunately. GDI will continue to service both the Green Flash and Alpine brands until we exhaust our inventory. We are hopeful that over a period of time they could come back to the market."Just a few months ago in December, 2017 Green Flash President and COO said “We are currently focused on reducing overall SKU count while expanding distribution of core brands as well as amplifying our brand’s impact in key regions. As we near completion of our Lincoln, Nebraska brewhouse and restaurant, we are continuing our search for opportunities to expand. We look forward to opening upwards of four new outposts in cities across the country over the next 2 years.”If you recall, Green Flash Brewing announced they were opening a 3rd brewery in Lincoln, Nebraska just last summer after announcing a Virginia brewery a year before that in August 2016. In interviews, Green Flash founder Chris Hinkley has said they had aspirations to become a legacy brand available in all fifty-states, but apparently, that has changed after looking at the recent numbers. Instead the brewery will pull back to focus on the markets near their three breweries, I would think Oregon and Washington were close enough to their San Diego headquarters but maybe our fiercely local beer drinkers have not been purchasing enough West Coast IPA in the last year. Apparently, Green Flash will still open more brewpubs as that seems to be the model these days in expanding your footprint (see 10 Barrel, Ballast Point, Golden Road etc.)
Does Green Flash's inevitable acceptance to be a regional (not national) brand say something about the prospects of other breweries with grand ambitions? And does their pull-out of Oregon and Washington distribution speak towards a blowback to all of the out-of-state breweries launching distro into the area? It will be interesting to see if some of the non-pacific northwest breweries new to Oregon will stay in this market, namely ones like Founders Brewing and much smaller guys like Revision Brewing.According to the announcement:Green Flash will streamline its distribution reach and focus sales and marketing efforts on core U.S. regions with the most efficient access to the Company’s San Diego and Virginia Beach breweries. This strategic re-focus will enhance the Company’s operations and provide consumers with the freshest beer possible. Concentrating sales and marketing efforts on a more focused geographic footprint will accelerate sales velocity, increase inventory turnover, and result in more than 90% of all shipped Green Flash and Alpine beer arriving the same day that it is shipped.