Carnage at 10 Barrel
Last night I received a DM that 10 Barrel had laid off their incredibly talented crew of brewers—Tonya Cornett, Shawn Kelso, and Jimmy Seifrit. It didn’t seem possible. These are among the most celebrated brewers in the country, and they’ve won tons of awards. Hell, earlier this year, Tonya won the most prestigious brewing award there is, the Russell Schehrer award.
Alas, Ezra Johnson-Greenough reports at the New School that it’s true:
“According to reports, last week 10 Barrel Brewing founders and brothers Chris and Jeremy Cox tendered their resignation from the brewery they created, announcing their departure internally last week. What followed was a mass layoff of 10 Barrel Brewing’s entire innovation brewing team on Wednesday, September 4th. This included company-wide positions in brewing, cellar, and sales, according to multiple sources.”
Ezra does a great job of characterizing why, of all the brewing teams in the US, Tilray would choose to abandon this one. It really was one of the most talented in the country. 10 Barrel had been owned by AB InBev, which bought the brewery in 2014. Tilray, in turn, bought it with a suite of other breweries ABI had purchased over the past decade. At 10 Barrel, employees treated the Tilray purchase like a liberation, and the Brewers Association immediately restored the brewery’s status as “craft brewer.”
This is a fragment of news about a larger picture. Tilray owns Portland-based Widmer Brothers and Seattle-based Redhook, and very recently purchased Hop Valley from Molson Coors. So far there has been no reporting about what will happen with those breweries. Widmer Brothers has a large facility in Portland capable of producing hundreds of thousands of barrels, and one might surmise—or at least consider the possibility—that this is an effort to consolidate barrelage. In addition to Widmer, Redhook has a small brewery in Seattle, Hop Valley has a production brewery in Eugene and a brewpub in Springfield, OR and 10 Barrel has breweries in Portland, Bend, and Boise, ID.
That doesn’t explain why they’d fire some of their best and most-experienced talent. Tilray is proud to boast it is now the 5th largest craft brewery in the US—surely such an organization would appreciate their skills. That the founders have stepped down, after apparently sticking it out through the ABI years, is also a bit ominous. It would seem to suggest that Tilray plans to strip down the brand’s choices and exit their work in innovation (of note, Pub Beer, a mass-market lager, is one of their main products).
Finally just as a quickie follow-up to yesterday’s post on the nature of “craft” beer. In defining “craft brewery,” the Brewers Association made a strange choice. A brewery could be owned by a large, multinational corporation like Tilray. The main thing they objected to was large-brewery ownership. Fair enough. Yet large breweries, in acquiring smaller ones, have often highlighted the fact that, as breweries, they understood the business and wouldn’t act rashly. Pretty clearly, AB InBev was far more committed to the excellent work of these brewers than Tilray is. So throw that irony into the discussion as well.
I have made inquiries with Tilray about their plans, but haven’t heard back. I’ll let you know if I do.
Update: Just as I posted this article, Tilray responded with this email:
Thank you for reaching out. At this time, we can provide you with a statement.
As the Tilray Beverages team continues to evolve and grow, we identified areas where duplication of work exists within our organization. In order to streamline our operations, we have made the difficult decision to restructure our workforce and reallocate resources accordingly.
As a result, we implemented a reduction in force that impacted a limited number of employees across various departments. This decision was not taken lightly, and we are committed to supporting those affected by these changes through this transition.
We appreciate the dedication and hard work of our employees and are confident that these changes have helped us continue to serve our customers and achieve our long-term goals.