Florida Bars to Reopen with 50% Capacity Monday
Some Florida bars and breweries that don’t serve food will be able to reopen for service at 50% capacity on Monday.
Halsey Beshears, Florida’s secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, tweeted Thursday evening that Gov. Ron DeSantis had rescinded the executive order that forced them to close in June.
We are rescinding amended EO 20-09 from DBPR as of Monday. Starting Monday, all bars will be reopened at 50% occupancy. pic.twitter.com/YqQR2MkJpR
— HalseyBeshears (@HalseyBeshears) September 10, 2020
Florida seems to be throwing in the towel on COVID-19 regulation. In the order, the state claimed that “noncompliance by bars and other vendors licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises is suspected throughout the state to such a degree as to make individualized enforcement efforts impractical and insufficient at this time.”
The order will not apply in Miami-Dade County, where deputy mayor Jennifer Moon, who oversees executive orders, told the Miami Herald bars will not be included in the list of businesses permitted to reopen on Monday. That list includes outdoor amusement parks, tour boats and rental scooters, according to the Herald.
Florida breweries have had to adapt during the summer, adding food service. In one example, St. Petersburg-based Green Bench Brewing invested in a food truck in order to comply with the order.
Pennsylvania Restaurants to Increase Capacity to 50%; Alcohol Sales Must End at 10 P.M.
Restaurants and breweries in Pennsylvania may increase their indoor dining capacity to 50% beginning September 21, according to a notice to members of the Brewers of Pennsylvania.
To open, on-premise establishments must participate in the Open & Certified Pennsylvania Program, which “requires that owners certify that they are familiar with the current industry guidance.” The certification must be completed by October 5, but establishments may reopen on September 21.
All alcohol sales must end by 10 p.m., and patrons have 30 minutes after that to finish their drinks, BOP wrote.
“We do not know if this will apply to off-premise sales,” BOP said. “Late-breaking word from our government contacts has informed us that additional orders will be issued by September 21.”
Ball Plans to Open New Plant in Pennsylvania
Ball Corporation, the world’s biggest manufacturer of aluminum cans, announced that it will build one of its two new plants in Pittston, Pennsylvania.
“Our new Pittston plant is Ball’s latest investment to serve accelerating demand for our portfolio of infinitely recyclable aluminum containers used in the sparkling water, spiked seltzer, beer and carbonated beverage categories,” COO of global beverage packaging Daniel W. Fisher said in a press release.
The plant is expected to come online in mid-2021 and plans to employ 230 workers. Ball will add 6 billion units to its production capacity with the addition of the Pittston facility, Ball’s plant under construction in Glendale, Arizona, and new production lines added to facilities in Rome, Georgia, and Fort Worth, Texas.
Can inventory nationwide is extremely tight, due to the massive shift in consumer demand for packaged goods after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down bars and restaurants, forcing countless barrels of beer planned for kegs to be packaged in cans.
The Pittston plant’s location is within driving distances of two of Ball’s larger clients in the beer industry. Pittston is about 130 miles away from Mark Anthony Brands’ new facility in Hillside, New Jersey, and about 70 miles away from Boston Beer’s brewery in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania. Both companies’ popular hard seltzers — White Claw and Truly Hard Seltzer, respectively — come in 12 oz. slim cans.
FIFCO USA Ends Distribution Arrangement with Fun Wine
FIFCO USA continues to shake up its U.S. operations. The beer and FMB maker announced this week that its marketing and distribution agreement with Fun Wine will end by December 2020.
FIFCO USA CEO Rich Andrews said the two companies mutually agreed to end the partnership after helping build out the brand’s U.S. distribution footprint.
“We have spent the last few months analyzing and realigning our business against our key strategies and priorities,” Andrews said in the release. “With greater focus, we are creating a healthier and more successful company.”
According to the release, Fun Wine will appoint wholesalers from its existing U.S. network.
FIFCO USA has moved to simplify and realign its business since Andrews’ arrival last December, focusing on FMB brand Seagram’s and beer brands Labatt and Genesee. As part of those efforts, FIFCO pulled the plug on its spiked still water line Pura Still, closed the Pyramid Brewing taproom after 30 years, and transferred production of Magic Hat products out of Vermont to its Genesee facility in Rochester, New York.
Maryland’s Union Craft Responds to Sexual Harassment Allegations
Baltimore-based Union Craft Brewing has parted with an employee after an investigation into workplace harassment at the 8-year-old craft brewery and issued an apology to “those affected by this.”
“This is not the Union we want to be,” the company wrote in a Facebook post.
The company, which was founded by Kevin Blodger, Adam Benesch and Jon Zerivitz, wrote that it hired an independent consultant “several months ago” to investigate the allegations and “the individual in question was relieved of his duties and removed from the operations at the brewery.” The company did not name the employee.
According to the Baltimore Business Journal, the employee in question allegedly took private photographs and videos without permission from the phones and emails of female employees and sent them to himself. The allegations were first made public on a local artists’ social media page.
Union co-founder Benesch told the Business Journal that the investigation “confirmed the validity of some of the accusations, but we were not able to confirm whether there was a ‘virtual assault,’ or theft of any illicit pictures.”
In its social media post, Union, citing privacy laws, claimed that it was “limited” to what it can publicly state about the employee or the results of the investigation. However, the company said it has since added an external resource for staff to address workplace issues and has begun the process of recruiting a full-time human resource manager. Additionally, the company hired an independent consultant to help “reshape” its company culture and that will include training on workplace harassment and institute tools to identify and respond to improper behaviors.
“While we stand behind these necessary and important actions, we believe there is more work to do,” the company said. “It starts with this public apology and we will not stop until we have created the safe, equitable, supportive, fun, and productive work environment that we’ve always envisioned and promised to our employees and to the community at Union.”
Earlier this year, Vansana Nolintha, the co-owner of Raleigh, North Carolina-based Brewery Bhavana and its sister restaurant, Bida Manda, said he would vacate his leadership roles and sell his ownership stake in those establishments amid allegations of sexual harassment and improper conduct.
BrewDog Begins Final Equity for Punks Funding Round
Scottish craft beer makers BrewDog launched its final crowdfunding round today, called Equity for Punks Tomorrow. The funding round will be focused on transforming BrewDog’s business into a more sustainable and environmentally friendly operation. Those projects include “solar power, wind power, electric vehicle fleets, and converting waste into energy.” The goal is to reduce BrewDog’s emissions to zero in less than two years.
Since launching in 2009, Equity for Punks has raised more than $97.5 million from 145,000 investors. From 2017 to 2019, BrewDog’s Equity for Punks investment rounds in the U.S. has added 15,000 U.S. investors to its base.
Shares are priced at $60, and the company is hoping to raise $2.5 million. The investment round will close on May 30, 2021.
Last month, BrewDog announced that it had reached carbon negative status and was planning to invest $39 million on sustainability efforts.