Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1532573
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Contract Regional Microbreweries, brewing brewers Taprooms and brewpubs Total 2019 309,601 17,696,250 8,266,800 26,272,651 2020 324,524 15,426,408 7,090,472 22,841,404 2021 228,440 16,539,816 7,978,570 24,746,826 2022 196,750 15,628,736 8,354,367 24,179,853 2023 197,195 15,352,323 7,810,353 23,359,871 Note: Figures are in barrels. 1 barrel = 31 U.S. gallons Source: Brewers Association national beer sales and production data same consumer-driven factors impact- ing the whole industry. Dan: When things like the downturn in cra beer happen, it tends to impact people who are in the weakest position. If we were doing it all over again, we would have done things differently. Like what? Dani: We would have rented a differ- ent location. Greg Carlson, brewer: at was probably the biggest issue. At the time it made sense, because we were coming from the Boston market. e Worcester market was, and almost certainly still is, cheaper than the Boston market, which is what our frame of reference was. Dan: ere were obviously other issues with the space than the cost. e brewery was hard to find, and the park- ing situation was a bit counterintuitive. Greg: ose are the compromises you have to make, because there's no such thing as a perfect location. But when you go through a pandemic, then infla- tion, and then an overall drop in market growth, and a lot of the small businesses in Worcester were struggling, those compromises turned into real problems. Dani: We signed a lease we proba- bly shouldn't have signed. Honestly, if COVID had never happened, we proba- bly would have been okay. If things had continued in the direction they were headed pre-COVID, we probably would have been fine with an overly expensive lease. But where revenue was given COVID, it was too high of a percentage of our overall revenue to be sustainable. e landlord had no appetite to work with us, and that was a significant issue. Could the City of Worcester do more to support small businesses? Dani: e City could do more to support small businesses. We got some grants, but they're reimbursable grants. You have to spend the money up front and then get reimbursed on it. at's tough for a lot of small businesses. e City's economic development office's priorities are set by the admin- istration, and they're stretched thin on what they're able to do and under-re- sourced. e message from them was always, "Tell me exactly what you want, and let me see what I can do," versus really making it a priority to support small businesses and creative business- es. Why don't we have some sort of small business task force going out and actually talking to businesses? Greg: Most of the grants and help from the City came before or during COVID. Post-COVID has proba- bly been harder for small businesses than the actual pandemic itself. Since COVID, it was basically nothing from the City. Dani: When Worcester boutique grocer Maker to Main closed in January 2024, the statements from the City were very generic. When we closed, no one said anything. e selling point of Worcester is not only a lower cost of liv- ing — for now — but a cool, grassroots community. So where is the promotion, and where is the support of that? Dan: e City doesn't celebrate small businesses like it used to. But I want to be clear: Could the City have done more to save us? Maybe, but maybe not. I've had a lot of people reach out saying they wish they could have done more. I don't think there's anything more we could ask of our community or custom- ers. We had a lot of people in our corner. The last month of operations, particularly the final two nights, saw large crowds at the brewery. Were you frustrated that level of customer support wasn't there the whole time? Dani: No. People can be like, "Oh my god, that place closed? I hadn't been there in two years, but I loved it." We recognize over the years people's lives change. People are going out less. So we really don't blame people for that. We did a lot more revenue in our last month open than we had been doing for forever. We had our best month ever. I can't really blame anybody. Greg: Traffic definitely never went back to that pre-COVID level. It's hard to blame customers for that, because we all feel the same stuff, right? We're all going through the same economic problems stopping people from supporting us. Dani: Talking to other breweries, from a revenue perspective we did pretty well. Our expenses were just too high. Any big moves we might have made, such as put- ting in a kitchen or opening for different hours, would have required investment. We didn't have any money to do that. We really didn't have access to capital or high-wealth people, and we didn't have the ability to take on more debt. We tried to grow in less expensive ways, but those aren't as impactful. Redemption Rock seemed to have a small, tight-knit staff. Was breaking the news to them one of the more difficult parts of closing? Greg: Yeah, easily the worst part. Dan: Toward the end, things were clearly not good. I don't think any of them were particularly surprised, but they were quite sad. Dani: ey enjoyed working together, enjoyed the mission, and enjoyed the customers. at's the worst part for us: Not having this team, not working with these people, not seeing our customers, not having this space. ey were all pretty devastated. On social media, the big question after the closure announcement was what will happen to Jimmy, the brewery's cat. Looking at his Instagram, it seems like he's settled into retirement. Dani: He ended up being adopted by a friend of our social media manager. ere was a little bit of a transition be- cause they have another cat, and he was a bit anxious and aggressive when he first moved. He kicked them out of their bed the first night, but now he's doing great. He's got windows he can look out everyday. He's a happy, happy boy. What is Redemption Rock's legacy? Dan: Letting other people take advantage of what we're offering, with nonprofits, artists, workshops, and pop- ups. If we had any degree of success, it was allowing collaboration, allowing creativity, and allowing people's happi- ness. Dani: I've seen some comments like "Oh, well, if you guys can't succeed, what am I even doing?" I want to flip that narrative on its head and hope what we were able to do was inspire other people. We made it six years, with no money in the bank when we started. Greg: People that start businesses have their passions and their creative energy. Hopefully, we give people the idea if you just create space for other people to come in and share their pas- sion and their creativity, you can create something much bigger than you could ever do on your own. is interview was edited for length and clarity by WBJ Managing Editor Eric Casey.