Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV) has restructured its sales force, cutting “a handful” of sales roles, in order to better focus the company’s efforts on off-premise retailers, Brewbound has learned.
John Coleman, CEO of the brewery roll up that includes Victory Brewing, Southern Tier, Sixpoint Brewery and Bold Rock Cider, told Brewbound that the goal of last week’s restructuring effort was to put a greater focus on off-premise retailers across all segments, including independent stores, as well as chain grocery, convenience, and mass retailers. He added that the consumer shift to the off-premise channel has largely stuck, with the on-premise channel not yet recovering to 2019 levels pre-COVID 19 pandemic.
Coleman explained that through craft beer’s growth years in the middle 2010s and via a variety of acquisitions, ABV’s sales organization grew “very large” with “a lot of layers in it.”
“The goal really as we restructured this year was to kind of flatten the organization and get our senior sales leaders closer to the customer – that’s both our wholesaler customers and our retail partners,” he said.
ABV’s senior sales leaders will be more involved on a daily basis with those key customers, Coleman said. Ensuring that the company has “people in the right place, calling on the right channels, and working closer with those wholesalers in those key retail partners” was a “driving force for the restructure,” he said.
“The way we were structured didn’t really allow for that because there were just too many layers, candidly, and too many handoffs,” he said. “By doing it this way, we think we now have everybody much closer to the customer and put us in a better place to recognize trends and work with these folks to really just improve performance across the brand.
“It just puts us in a much better place to continue our growth in 2023,” he continued.
The individuals affected by the job cuts will receive a severance and medical coverage that extends beyond the company’s normal severance packages, Coleman said.
ABV, the eighth-largest Brewers Association-defined craft brewery by volume, is among several other craft brewing companies to cut jobs this year.
In November, Odell Brewing laid off nine employees (about 5% of its workforce) after the Fort Collins, Colorado-headquartered craft brewery’s “volume fell short of 2022 goals.”
In June, Night Shift Brewing scaled back production at its Everett, Massachusetts, brewery and increased its contract brewing with Framingham-based Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers and Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based Isle Brewers Guild. The shift impacted 12 employees, who were guaranteed pay until October 1, then paid severance packages. Night Shift plans to “stay this course for 2023,” co-founder Michael Oxton told Brewbound.
In April, Bell’s Brewery and New Belgium Brewing laid off around 30 workers (about 3% of its workforce) as part of the integration process between the two companies, now part of Lion Little World Beverages’ U.S. craft division. Michigan’s Founders Brewing also cut eight jobs in order to focus on its on-premise business.