• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Friday bummer: Looks like Stone is laying off 5 percent of its employees

October 14, 2016Keith Gribbins

Arrogant Bastard Stone Brewing can
Making Arrogant Bastard its own company was one of the many power moves Stone Brewing has made of late.

Stone Brewing Co. has been gobbling up headlines with new projects over the last year. Just check out some of these posts:

Stone Brewing continues to grab world by gonads, announces beer hotel in San Diego

This video of Stone Brewing Berlin will have you booking tickets to Germany

World of Beer Craft: Stone Brewing releases its first Berlin-brewed beers

Stone Brewing continues to crush it: Plans to open Napa, Calif. tap room and pilot brewery

Stone’s Greg Koch to launch $100 million fund to help grow other breweries

Greg Koch kind of explains new subsidiary, Arrogant Brewing, in this video

This is on top of building its second home in Richmond, Va. When it was announced in 2014, Stone planned to invest $74 million to construct an East Coast production brewery, packaging hall, destination restaurant, retail store and its administrative offices in Richmond. They had planned to employ more than 288 people there, but maybe not anymore. Rumors started swirling yesterday, and according to the CBS affiliate out of Richmond, Stone Brewing has or will be laying off 5 percent of its workforce.

The California-based company said the decline in domestic growth for craft beers and for the company they were forced to restructure to “preserve our independence in an increasingly competitive category:”

The company provided CBS 6 with a statement that read in part:

“Due to an unforeseen slowdown in our consistent growth and changes in the craft beer landscape, we have had to make the difficult decision to restructure our staff. Unfortunately, this comes despite a year that includes the incredible accomplishments of opening two new breweries, which are ultimately expanding the availability of Stone beers and boosting the reputation of American craft beer in Europe.”

“It is crucial to recognize that this decision was made after much careful consideration. Approximately 5% of all team members were affected, and they were offered a substantial notice period and career transition services. No additional layoffs are expected within Stone’s foreseeable future.”

Richmond has some reasonable concerns. According to the article, the City of Richmond issued $23 million in bonds to help pay for the facility and pledged $8 million more to build a destination restaurant near the facility in the Fulton neighborhood. There are a lot of considerations here: growth slowing for big brands; fierce competition; buyers gravitating to local products; and more returns perhaps in destination experiences than on the beer shelves. We’ll keep reporting on these market trends as they evolve. Meanwhile, Stone remains one of the largest employers in the craft brewing segment.

Stone Brewing teams with Sanuk for a lineup of summer sandals
Love these four new labels from Stone Brewing’s Guest Artist IPA Mixed Pack
Stone Brewing opens taproom in Shanghai (enjoy some photos)
Photo blog: Stone Brewing – Napa opens, brings beer to wine country via historic 1877 downtown Borreo building

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jared Read says

    October 14, 2016 at 11:36 am

    Jared Read liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Vermont breweries team on Vermont Strong Pale Ale to aid in flood relief efforts
  • New Jersey’s Cape May Brewing ceases self-distribution
  • WildEdge Brewing explains 100 percent Colorado-sourced dark wheat and more beers to know this week
  • Craft beer marketing idea of the week: the DelaWeAre collaboration

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • GrainChainWildEdge Brewing explains 100 percent Colorado-sourced dark wheat and more beers to know this week
    September 28, 2023
  • root-shoot-maltingCelebrate Craft Malt Week with this 2023 craft malt and barley news recap
    September 27, 2023
  • Let’s take a look at California Wild Ales new Point Loma brewery and taproom
    September 25, 2023
  • Distribution update: Craftwell Cocktails arrive in Idaho + moves from Resident Culture, Good Dogg and more
    September 25, 2023
  • insurance-risk-exposureReflections in risk: How craft brewing risks evolved the past decade
    September 21, 2023
  • Watch how the bacteria in Bell’s Cube wastewater facility are raised on craft beer
    September 20, 2023

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2023 · CBB Media LLC