Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Green Flash cuts staff, stops shipping to 32 states

"The market is nothing like it was when we started."

Green Flash was the country's 37th largest craft brewery in 2016.
Green Flash was the country's 37th largest craft brewery in 2016.

Amid a new round of layoffs, the first San Diego craft brewery to sell beer in all 50 states has announced it will no longer distribute to 32 of them.

Place

Green Flash Brewing Co.

6550 Mira Mesa Boulevard, San Diego

Green Flash Brewing gives the number let go at 15 percent, including employees at both its San Diego brewery and the one it opened in Virginia in 2016. Reporting by West Coaster magazine and the Brewbound website indicate 33 employees were let go from sales, administrative, and operational positions.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The news comes almost a year to the day since 25 Green Flash employees were laid off in January of 2017 — estimated at the time to be a 10 percent workforce reduction.

Green Flash stated in a press release that its plan will be to limit distribution to regional markets within easy reach of its breweries — which will also include Nebraska, once a previously announced Green Flash brewpub opens in the town of Lincoln later this year.

At the time of the press release, Green Flash said its San Diego brewery would distribute to Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Texas, Utah, and Nebraska. The Virginia Beach brewery would ship to Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia.

The press release cites these East Coast states as comprising the company's fastest growing sales region. Reached by phone, Green Flash founder and CEO Mike Hinkley stated, "We had the biggest chunk of our market — about 82 percent — in the states we kept." He then added that, as of Tuesday (January 16th), the decision had been made to continue distributing to Connecticut after all. "It's probably 83 percent now."

He said the remaining 17 percent of sales were untenably split among the 32 states no longer in the brewery's plans. "They were in pretty steady decline," Hinkley said. "We were spending far too much in sales and marketing activities." He attributed the "hard decisions" to cut staff to that 17 percent loss in revenue.

Hinkley acknowledged that this is "definitely a step back" from the company's previous aspiration to be a national brand, but he no longer believes marketing to 50 states is attainable for a brewery with Green Flash's resources. "A brewery with greater resources, possibly one bought out by a big corporation, could make that leap," he speculated. "For an independently owned brewery, that ship may have sailed."

Asked to address rumors that arose last year suggesting Hinkley was looking to sell Green Flash to corporate interests, he said, "It's not a plan, to sell the company. That's for sure." He stopped short of saying it would never happen, citing the unpredictability of a rapidly changing craft-beer business. "The market is nothing like it was 2 years ago, 5 years ago, 15 years ago, when we started," he said. "Green Flash is still a good, strong business…but it remains to be seen whether we can survive as an independent brewery."

As of 2016, the Brewers Association counted Green Flash the 37th largest craft brewery in the nation and the second largest in San Diego; 2017 marked its 15th year in business. It purchased the East County brewery, taproom, and restaurant Alpine Beer Company in 2014, and notes no employees of those Alpine properties will be impacted by the layoffs. Nor will retail employees at Green Flash tasting rooms.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Pet pig perches in pocket

Escondido doula gets a taste of celebrity
Green Flash was the country's 37th largest craft brewery in 2016.
Green Flash was the country's 37th largest craft brewery in 2016.

Amid a new round of layoffs, the first San Diego craft brewery to sell beer in all 50 states has announced it will no longer distribute to 32 of them.

Place

Green Flash Brewing Co.

6550 Mira Mesa Boulevard, San Diego

Green Flash Brewing gives the number let go at 15 percent, including employees at both its San Diego brewery and the one it opened in Virginia in 2016. Reporting by West Coaster magazine and the Brewbound website indicate 33 employees were let go from sales, administrative, and operational positions.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The news comes almost a year to the day since 25 Green Flash employees were laid off in January of 2017 — estimated at the time to be a 10 percent workforce reduction.

Green Flash stated in a press release that its plan will be to limit distribution to regional markets within easy reach of its breweries — which will also include Nebraska, once a previously announced Green Flash brewpub opens in the town of Lincoln later this year.

At the time of the press release, Green Flash said its San Diego brewery would distribute to Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Texas, Utah, and Nebraska. The Virginia Beach brewery would ship to Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia.

The press release cites these East Coast states as comprising the company's fastest growing sales region. Reached by phone, Green Flash founder and CEO Mike Hinkley stated, "We had the biggest chunk of our market — about 82 percent — in the states we kept." He then added that, as of Tuesday (January 16th), the decision had been made to continue distributing to Connecticut after all. "It's probably 83 percent now."

He said the remaining 17 percent of sales were untenably split among the 32 states no longer in the brewery's plans. "They were in pretty steady decline," Hinkley said. "We were spending far too much in sales and marketing activities." He attributed the "hard decisions" to cut staff to that 17 percent loss in revenue.

Hinkley acknowledged that this is "definitely a step back" from the company's previous aspiration to be a national brand, but he no longer believes marketing to 50 states is attainable for a brewery with Green Flash's resources. "A brewery with greater resources, possibly one bought out by a big corporation, could make that leap," he speculated. "For an independently owned brewery, that ship may have sailed."

Asked to address rumors that arose last year suggesting Hinkley was looking to sell Green Flash to corporate interests, he said, "It's not a plan, to sell the company. That's for sure." He stopped short of saying it would never happen, citing the unpredictability of a rapidly changing craft-beer business. "The market is nothing like it was 2 years ago, 5 years ago, 15 years ago, when we started," he said. "Green Flash is still a good, strong business…but it remains to be seen whether we can survive as an independent brewery."

As of 2016, the Brewers Association counted Green Flash the 37th largest craft brewery in the nation and the second largest in San Diego; 2017 marked its 15th year in business. It purchased the East County brewery, taproom, and restaurant Alpine Beer Company in 2014, and notes no employees of those Alpine properties will be impacted by the layoffs. Nor will retail employees at Green Flash tasting rooms.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tyler Farr, Blue Water Film Festival, Mustache Bash

Events March 21-March 23, 2024
Next Article

Not enough Readers in Mission Beach

Mayor Todd Gloria's skin color
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.