Mass Layoffs At 10 Barrel Brewing

We’re going to see more announcements like this, but last week’s layoffs at the award-winning brewery, speaks volumes as to where the craft beer biz is going, and it’s not good.

On September 6, our friends at the New School Beer and Cider broke the sad news, that 10 Barrel founders, Jeremy and Chris Cox had resigned from the brewery they’d started in 2006, in Bend. Oregon, one of the most vibrant craft beer enclaves in the country.

It’s been quite a journey…

10 Barrel Brewing took off almost immediately and fast became an acquisition target back when craft beer was becoming a force in the beer biz. Big Beer wanted in and in 2014 the uber-hot brewery was acquired by Anheuser-Busch.

“For the past eight years, we’ve been brewing beer, drinking beer and having fun doing it.”  co-founder Jeremy Cox said at the time. “We are excited to stay focused on brewing cool beers, get our beers in more hands, and make the most of the operational and distribution expertise of Anheuser-Busch.”

10 Barrel Brewing was on a roll, one of only four US breweries to win three medals and tied for most medals won at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival, the largest beer competition in the world.

It was a happier and healthier time for the brewery, craft beer was posting double digit growth and its possibilities seemed unlimited. And even as the industry slowed, the 10 Barrel stayed committed to brewing serious beers and in some ways were able to escape the “sell out” taint that had impacted other craft beer brands like Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch’s first acquisition.

By 2023, Anheuser-Busch signaled that it had lost interest in its craft beer properties, by offloading 10 Barrel Brewing along with Shock Top; Breckenridge Brewery; Blue Point Brewing Company; Redhook Brewery; and Widmer Brothers Brewing to Tilray Brands, a Canadian cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company.

But Tilray Beer Brands was still aggressively purchasing America craft breweries. They already owned a stable of US craft properties, including SweetWater, Green Flash, Montauk and Alpine Beer and the company was ranked as the #6 brewer in the nation in the Brewers Association’s Top 50 American Craft Breweries of 2023.

At the time 10 Barrel celebrated its release from Anheuser-Busch. Under the Tilray banner they had reclaimed their “craft brewery” status, things were full speed ahead, and no one expected to be out of a job just one year later.

Then on August 13, another beer major, Molson Coors, sold its remaining craft beer properties, Hop Valley Brewing, Terrapin Beer, Revolver Brewing and Atwater Brewery to Tilray, and although terms of that sale weren’t disclosed, it couldn’t have been cheap.

In a press release dated just two days ago on 9/3/24, Tilray Brands Chairman and CEO, Irwin D. Simon, touted their new acquisitions, ominously noting the company’s intention to drive growth while generating cost synergies…

The extent of the September 4^th layoffs was unclear at the time, but anonymous sources told The New School they included “former brewmaster and longtime leader Jimmy Seifrit, former Bend Brewing brewmaster Ian Larkin, former Barley Brown’s brewmaster Shawn Kelso, and notably, perhaps the world’s most award-winning brewer – Tonya Cornett,” as well as well as admin and sales positions.

Taking to social media, 10 Barrel Brewing co-founder Jeremy Cox said…

“This is our team that we went to battle with everyday for the last 18 years that are the best in the biz! Most are unemployed as of today which makes me super sad as they trusted us and we couldn’t protect them. Ultimately, we made the decision to sell and feel responsible but these aren’t the people who should be unemployed as they are everything I described above, all winners!”

Welcome to 2024…And fasten your seatbelts because 2024 is going to continue to be a tumultous ride.

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