Escondido, California-based Stone Brewing is headed into 2022 with a renewed focus on its core brands, led by its Buena brand family, CEO Maria Stipp told Brewbound.
“We learned through 2021 to keep things simple,” Stipp said. “In our past, Stone has been known to do a lot of things. And I think we’re in a place where simplification and getting rid of the complexity and being really clear with what we are prioritizing is making a big difference.”
Stone started its Buena brand family with its Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager, launched nationally in August 2020. Since then, the Mexican-style lager has grown to be Stone’s third-largest brand in overall sales, and No. 1 draft brand.
In April, it added Buenavida Hard Seltzer in four flavors — Mango, Black Cherry, Mandarin, and Watermelon Lime — packaged in glass bottles and distributed solely in Southern California.
“When we started talking to retailers about coming with a seltzer it was met with disdain,” Stipp said. “So we started handing out our samples, and the first thing that they reacted to was the glass bottle. And they were really surprised and they liked it.”
To prepare for the launch, Stone produced three months worth of inventory, which Stipp said sold out in two weeks. Buenavida, Buenaveza, and Stone’s Hazy IPA — which launched in August — now consistently populate Stone’s top three brands in its bistro locations throughout California.
A third addition to the Buena family will be added in 2022. While Stipp declined to share what the product will be, she did say it will be in the beyond beer space.
“We see [Buena] as sort of the door to bring non-traditional beers [from what] Stone is known for to the table in a fresh way that looks welcoming and a bit different than Stone has in the past, and hopefully will bring in people that have never tried Stone before,” Stipp said.
“If you look at the consumer base [of Buenavida], we know for a fact from surveys that there are quite a few people that are trying Stone for the first time,” she continued. “They’re coming to us as new fans because of a lager. We were always really traditionally strong with loving our core consumer, but we haven’t done a great job bringing in new fans. And so with Buenaveza and Buenavida and now with our Hazy, we feel like we’re bringing people that either are lapsed drinkers or trying Stone for the first time because they aren’t IPA drinkers.”
The latest product will not be non-alcoholic, although Stipp said she is keeping a watchful eye on the growing segment.
“We have so many other things that in my mind, at least for the Stone brand, I think are better served for us to focus on right now,” she said.
With 2022 focused on the Buena family, Stone is pulling back on some of its SKUs. While not stopping production of any beers entirely, it is deprioritizing SKUs nationally, such as its Stone Neverending Haze session IPA, 22 oz. bottles nationally, and its Stone Delicious IPA in 12 oz. bottles nationally.
Not to exclude the IPAs Stone made its name with, the brewery will introduce a variety 12 pack in January featuring some of its core IPAs, including Delicious, Hazy, and FML hazy double IPA. The pack will be made possible by a new automated mix pack canning line, that will be installed in the new Stone Distributing facility.
The canning line will also be used by breweries in Stone Distributing’s portfolio, so they too will no longer have to outsource variety packs.
In 2021, Stone Distributing added nine new brands to its portfolio of more than 40 breweries, including San Diego-based Societe Brewing, Thousand Oaks-based Tarantula Hill Brewing, and Inglewood-based Crowns & Hops.
Additionally, the distributor has focused on diversifying its portfolio, adding Chula Vista-based Boochcraft Kombucha, Santa Monica-based hard cold brew maker Bomani Cold Buzz, and San Diego-based Ashland Hard Seltzer and ready-to-drink canned cocktail maker Villager Spirits.
“We’ve focused on building out our portfolio both in terms of craft beer — Societe is a great example — but also we were severely under-shared in seltzers,” Stipp said. “We’re looking to build out our LA footprint in a bigger, broader way, and then we’re also building our RTD bucket.”
Going into 2022, Stone plans to continue adding to its portfolio, but with a selective eye that will look for what can be added to its existing partnerships, without it becoming overloaded.
“Stone Distributing has a really good reputation,” Stipp said. “And so we of course, love new brands, but we have to be careful that we don’t take on too much and not do a really good job with the brands that we already have. We’ve been highly focused on what we can execute the right way and make our partners super happy.”
Overall, Stipp — who celebrated her first anniversary with Stone in September — said the company’s on-premise business has returned to about 80-85% of its pre-pandemic levels. She added that there is still a lot of runway for Stone to grow its distribution.
As for sales and marketing support, Stipp said the company is doubling down to build awareness and be more competitive with other national IPAs and Mexican import brands. She added that the company is exploring price decreases on Stone IPA on a market by market basis in what she described as an effort to compete “toe-to-toe” with other nationally distributed IPA brands. Price decreases implemented last year on Stone IPA helped reverse the brand’s trends in its home market of Southern California.
“A lot of us have large flagships, and when they start to erode, it’s a lot, a lot of barrels off the top of your volume that you need to fill with other things,” she said. “So to stabilize the volume on our largest brand was really mission critical. So we’re rolling that out nationally.”
Additionally, Stone has added new tanks to its Richmond, Virginia-based production facility to expand volume and East Coast distribution.
“This year, we put some things in place. 2022 is going to be a big proof point, because we’ve got some big bets out there,” Stipp said. “So this time a year from now, I’ll let you know if I’m 10% of the way or better than that.
“We’re super early on in our work here,and we have a lot of work to still do.”