It’s a familiar story.
An onslaught of new craft beer brands launched in the last three years has heightened an already competitive retail environment. The fight for highly coveted draft beer lines is fierce and earning shelf space at craft-savvy retailers is more challenging than ever.
But despite the headwinds, craft brewers are still confident.
Brewbound.com polled a number of brewery executives at the recently held 2013 Craft Brewers Conference in Washington D.C., and asked for their thoughts on a potential oversaturation in a burgeoning craft beer marketplace that now boasts more than 2,500 companies.
The verdict? Despite a finite amount of shelf space, small breweries that carve out a niche and keep distribution local will succeed. Notable respondents include Rob Widmer of Widmer Brothers Brewing, Meg Gill of Golden Road Brewing and Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, among others.
You can watch the responses in our latest video segment.