“Less is more” is Everett, Massachusetts-based Night Shift Brewing’s strategy in 2023. After a choppy 2022 that included a CO2 shortage and layoffs, the company is narrowing its focus on its core offerings in the new year, homing in on Whirlpool New England pale ale as its first flagship offering, adding popular packaging formats such as variety can 12-packs and single-serve cans and launching an evergreen brand campaign.
Night Shift co-founder Rob Burns described 2022 as a year in which the decade-old brewery refined its business model.
“We did have to make some tough decisions, but I fully believe they’re the right ones,” he said.
Night Shift’s volume was down “single digits” overall, with top-seller Santilli IPA declining single digits, and the company’s seasonal Brewer’s Choice SKU and Hoot Hard Seltzer both down. Meanwhile, Whirlpool Hazy New England pale ale, the Nite Lite lager series and Fluffy New England IPA were all up, with sales at Night Shift’s own-premise locations exceeding 2021 levels.
Entering 2023, Night Shift has “a better plan, a better SKU mix” and is leaning into what craft beer drinkers are buying, Burns said.
Brewbound caught up with Burns and Night Shift co-founder Michael Oxton about the company’s strategy for 2023. Here are highlights from that conversation.
Making Whirlpool a Flagship
After a decade in business, Night Shift’s leadership team is zeroing in on Whirlpool, the company’s hazy New England pale ale, as its flagship offering. Burns and Oxton described the decision to name their 4.5% ABV pale ale as a move to differentiate from the cadre of competitors leading with IPAs and “own a more niche segment of the market.” Conversations with their team, wholesalers and consumers reinforced that decision, they added.
“The 4.5% ABV also enables a little more recruitment of people that maybe don’t want something huge,” Oxton said.
Although Whirlpool has never been Night Shift’s top-selling offering — trailing Santilli IPA in volume by about 6% — the pale ale has greater awareness and association with the Night Shift brand, they added.
“We really believe that if we can put the right attention and focus on Whirlpool, that it will reach new heights or new volume goals,” Burns said.
To narrow the gap between the beers, Night Shift is line pricing Santilli and Whirlpool. In the on-premise channel, the price of both beers was cut, while package pricing increased to account for increased cost of goods and labor, Burns said.
As part of the effort to make Whirlpool Night Shift’s flagship, the company has instructed its sales team to focus on getting draft handles for the pale ale, Burns said. To support those efforts, Night Shift is adding Whirlpool branded tap handles to stand out in bars and restaurants. The company is also promoting Whirlpool at its locations with themed days, such as Whirlpool Wing Wednesday at its Lovejoy satellite taproom in Boston.
Santilli IPA and lager series Nite Lite will remain Night Shift’s other priorities moving forward, Burns said.
The change comes amid Night Shift ceasing operations of its own distribution business, Night Shift Distributing, in the fall of 2021, and moving distribution to the Sheehan Family Companies. Before 2021, the market craved more of a rotation of brands and new offerings, whereas now is seeking “trustworthy, consistent, right priced, rightly merchandised, easily accessible brands,” Burns said.
“In ‘21, we put out 80 different brands to the wholesale market,” he said. “This year’s production has about 30 brands going out to wholesale. Again, less is more. We think we could put out a fraction of the number of SKUs but achieve more volume.”
“There was a long, thin tail [in Night Shift’s portfolio],” Oxton added. “So many of those SKUs were minimal volume and so much work to get them on the shelf, design the label, promote them, and your ROI on that feels like it’s diminishing every year or two. So a lot of that stuff we’re transitioning to taproom only.”
2 Variety Packs, Plus Single-Serve Cans On the Way
As part of giving consumers what they want, Night Shift is launching its first craft beer variety can 12-packs.
The Lite Owl Party Pack — featuring Nite Lite American Light Lager, Lime Lite Light Lager and Day Lite Orange Peel Wheat Lager — began hitting retailers across New England this week. The pack also marks a packaging refresh for the Nite Lite series, moving away from the black can with Lite Brite owl motif in favor of lighter packaging in line with other beers in the segment.
Oxton and Burns admitted the original packaging created consumer confusion.
“No one knew it was light,” Oxton said. “It didn’t scream refreshment at all. And it was not appealing to anyone who’s a light beer drinker who looks for white [packaging] or lightness.”
“We tried to fight it for a number of years,” Burns added. “But I think we were missing out on introducing this product to a whole group of people by kind of being maybe stubborn in our design choice.”
In March, Night Shift will follow up the lager variety pack with the Hop Owl Party Pack, featuring core offerings Santilli, Whirlpool, and Fluffy, plus the return of Morph IPA as a pack exclusive.
The lager pack is expected to be in the $15.99 to $16.99 price range, while the hoppy pack will likely be priced around $18.99 to $19.99, Burns said. Both packs will be available across Night Shift’s distribution footprint.
Also new to Night Shift in 2023 will be 19.2 oz. single-serve cans of Santilli and a new offering, Super Santilli Double IPA, starting in mid-February. Super Santilli (9% ABV) will be exclusive to the single-serve format. Although Massachusetts isn’t a major convenience store state, the single-serves are popping up in grocery stores as a trial opportunity, Burns said.
Finally, the Brewer’s Choice seasonal SKU will become the “Share the Night” series. The four releases will each benefit a charitable organization, starting with Boston Proud IPA, which will benefit the Boston Proud organization; followed by Shark Jumper IPA, benefitting the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy; Dunkel John’s Band with the charity to be announced; and a peanut butter porter in partnership with Everett-based Teddie Peanut Butter.
‘Brewed at Night’ Brand Campaign Coming
Night Shift is putting together its first evergreen brand building marketing campaign called “Brewed at Night.” The goal is to tell the Night Shift story in a playful way while engaging new consumers with slogans such as “So you quit your day job to start a brewery. The best ideas are brewed at night.” The campaign will play out on social media, out-of-home digital billboard advertising and point-of-sale items such as coasters from the spring through the fall, Burns and Oxton said.
The idea was developed by three Boston University students who put together the campaign for an advertising class. The professor reached out to Oxton, and the brewery liked it so much that it paid the students for the campaign.
Oxton believes consumers will connect on the theme of funny stories coming out at night, and he hopes they will create their own submissions.
“The goal is, let’s make content that people will take a picture of and send to their friends,” he said. “Social has so much potential growth value. That’s also the one that you can plan the least because you know how you’re going to start it, but where it goes and what works and how people adopt it is super hard to predict. But it feels like it’ll have big legs on social.”
All Contract Volume Flowing from Jack’s Abby
After shifting much of its contract produced volume to Jack’s Abby in Framingham last year, Night Shift has moved the remaining contract volume there, ending its relationship with Isle Brewers Guild in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Consolidating production at one location was about further simplifying the business and adding efficiency, Burns and Oxton said.
“There’s a lot of knock on benefits that we had to that transition that we’re quickly taking advantage of, from price reduction on the Whirlpool draft to new product types and pack formats,” Burns said.
Night Shift continues to produce some volume at its Everett brewery, although it has “slimmed down” to focus primarily on research-and-development beers, taproom offerings and specialty releases.
“It’s still the pressure-relief valve to make product,” Burns said, noting a recent Santilli production run of around 400 barrels at the Everett facility. “The last few weeks, we’ve actually been making way more beer than we planned or budgeted for, so it’s putting a little stress on the system.”
Make or Break Year for Hoot Hard Seltzer
Night Shift’s Hoot Hard Seltzer line struggled in 2022, similar to broader hard seltzer segment trends, and the brand is off to a “sluggish” start in the new year although it’s out of season, Burns said. 2023 will likely be a make or break year for the line, which received a packaging refresh.
“We’ll probably have a heart to heart with our friend to see how things shake out this year, and see if they get to ‘24,” Burns said.
Nevertheless, Hoot is the fourth largest product line in the Night Shift portfolio, Burns said. That said, the company is placing less emphasis on the brand in 2023.
AI Beer to be Featured in Taproom
Count Night Shift among the craft breweries playing around with ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot that interacts with users. Oxton tested out the software’s ability to make a beer recipe and brought the idea of allowing the AI to lead the way back to the brewing team. The result is AI-P-A, a 7.5% ABV hazy IPA that will be sold in Night Shift’s taproom later this month.
Oxton said ChatGPT generated everything from the recipe to the ABV to the water chemistry to the name of the beer and the artwork for the label, with some prompts to make the recipe and branding more modern and interesting.