Shmaltz Brewing Company will boost its trade presence thanks to a new brand management partnership with Artisanal Imports, the two companies announced today.
In addition to “more than doubling” its current sales staff as a result of the agreement with Artisanal, Shmaltz, which currently sells beer in about 30 states, plans to expand the availability of its beers to at least six new markets.
“The beauty of Artisanal is that they are currently servicing about 47 states,” Shmaltz founder Jeremy Cowan told Brewbound. “Now we can combine orders coming from New Jersey and California with world-class brands like La Trappe, and sell a little bit of beer in places like Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Alabama and West Virginia.”
Cowan said he expects the arrangement to help Shmaltz increase its on- and off-premise retail presence by single to double digits, now that it can tap into Artisanal’s team of 14 salespeople. He also expects it to lower his company’s sales-related costs.
“The business model of regional sales reps has become difficult to sustain,” he said. “It is harder and harder to get a young supplier sales rep – someone I can afford based on my sales in any given territory – and have the time to train them and to get them to do an efficient, successful job covering a wide territory — which was my business model up until very recently.”
As part of the partnership, Artisanal Imports — which works with 28 other import, craft and cider brands, according to its website – will be compensated for providing sales, marketing, logistics, compliance and purchasing support, and be “incentivized” to sell the Shmaltz portfolio, Cowan said.
Shmaltz, based in upstate New York, produced 26,000 barrels of beer in 2017, Cowan said. But only 6,000 of those barrels were the company’s own brands, including the Alphabet City, Star Trek and 518/838 Craft labels. The remainder of the brewery’s output came from contract brewing arrangements with other beer companies.
As for 2018, Cowan said, “a little bit of growth would be great.”
“The goal for this year is to continue to operate as a functioning member of this wonderful beer community, and to maintain our distribution networks, our retail relationships and our staff,” he said. “Between the tough weather, which has really put a damper on business in the Northeast and Midwest, and the complication of so many new breweries continuing to open, this year is a good time to stay very organized and battle it out in the trenches while making sure that you tell your stories and cover your financing.”
A press release with additional details on Shmaltz Brewing’s partnership with Artisanal is included below.
Artisanal Imports Adds Shmaltz Brewing Company to Brand Management Portfolio
Austin, TX (April 16, 2018) – Artisanal Imports is excited to announce that the acclaimed Shmaltz Brewing Company of Clifton Park, New York has joined Artisanal’s exclusive brand management portfolio.
Founded as “a Jewish celebration craft beer” in 1996 by proprietor Jeremy Cowan, Shmaltz is beloved for its award-winning brews and quality shtick. The brewery currently offers a variety of year-round, seasonal, barrel-aged and specialty beers, including singular brands such as He’brew — The Chosen Beer® and Star Trek commemorative beers exclusively licensed through CBS Studios.
“We are excited to partner up with Shmaltz,” says Artisanal Imports President Sean Knoll. “I have known Jeremy Cowan since the beginning and have always admired his work ethic and his drive to create and maintain He’brew Beer. Nobody does it like Shmaltz! We share a great many distributor and retail customers already, so this partnership will allow both of us to strengthen those relationships.”
Artisanal Imports will enhance nationwide sales support for Shmaltz’s craft beer portfolio by providing a team of 14 highly experienced representatives working in tandem with the brewery’s in-house sales team ‒ more than doubling Shmaltz’s current sales staff.
Additionally, Artisanal’s comprehensive support with distribution, logistics, fulfillment, point of sale, marketing, chain store management, street representation and other services will expand Shmaltz’s distribution footprint beyond its existing 30-state network to bring exceptional seasonal and year-round releases to new markets nationwide. The retail presence and draft availability of Shmaltz’s releases will be elevated through existing and new accounts at select stores, restaurants and bars.
“How exciting to hook up with a world-class organization selling world-class beer” says Jeremy Cowan, founder and owner of Shmaltz Brewing. “Their experienced regional sales force of 14 in addition to our dynamic Shmaltz sales and marketing crew gives us new blood to be able to bring beer to our existing markets as well as new markets across the country in the upcoming months. This partnership allows us to continue my unorthodox business model of wide, wide, wide…and a little deep at home too. We’ll have new staff to hit the streets and the beer will be more available to the tribe nationwide. What more could we want?!”
For more information about Shmaltz Brewing Company, including interview opportunities with Founder and Owner Jeremy Cowan, please contact Lanny Hoff at +1 (612) 245-5433 or by email at lanny.hoff@artisanalimports.com.
About Shmaltz Brewing Company: Founder and owner Jeremy Cowan established Shmaltz Brewing in San Francisco in 1996. The first 100 cases of He’brew Beer® were hand-bottled and delivered throughout the Bay Area from the back of his Grandmother’s Volvo. Shmaltz Brewing now sells He’brew Beer across 30 states, through 40 wholesalers and in nearly 5,000 retailers.
After 17 years of being an outspoken cheerleader for contract brewing, Cowan and staff opened their own New York State production brewery in 2013 in Clifton Park, 10 minutes north of Albany. Shmaltz’s home boasts a 50-barrel brewhouse with 30,000 barrels of annual capacity and packages a diverse and tasty variety of core and seasonal favorites in 12 and 22-ounce bottles and kegs. The Shmaltz Tasting Room is open five days a week (Wed-Sun) and offers tours, barrel-aged previews, beer-to-go, and special releases.
RateBeer.com ranked Shmaltz as one of the “Top 100 Brewers in the World” in 2013, and the brewery brought home 1 platinum, 10 gold and 6 silver medals from the World Beer Championships in the past several years. Learn more about the brewery at http://shmaltzbrewing.com/.
Artisanal Imports is an importer of specialty beers from England, Germany, Belgium and beyond. Our portfolio of fine ales and lagers is broad and represents a wide range of beer styles, but it is not our mission to collect every small brewery across Europe. We believe in working in full partnership with our breweries and are careful to select beers that are high quality and interesting but that do not overlap one to the next.
The company also represents a growing portfolio of U.S. based breweries and cideries to assist with national sales growth.