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Stone says goodbye to China
Stone Brewing’s international venture in China, which launched in 2017, has abruptly come to an end, the victim of rising tariffs and a growing pandemic.
And unlike its failed foray in Berlin, Stone’s China operation which consisted of a taproom in Shanghai (with plans for another in Beijing) and a vibrant retail business was successful…Just not successful enough to withstand the prolonged tariffs that cut deeply into already small profit margins and the serious impact of the coronavirus which led to the closure of its taproom on March 8.
Stone Brewing released the following statement touting its accomplishments and detailing its exit from China…
However with trade war tariffs heavily impacting our margins, and coronavirus impacting our retail business, and with a growing need to invest continuously in our home market of California, Stone leadership made the difficult decision to wind down our China office and retail business. This decision is especially difficult as we have been enormously proud of our accomplishments in China, and it is not a reflection of performance (outside of the above mentioned extenuating circumstances). Our expansion has been an incredible adventure with amazing achievements to celebrate. Rather than assume that each one of our notable successes are widely known, we’re going to take a moment to celebrate them here: • In 2019 alone, we served more than 130,000 curious and passionate craft beer fans in Shanghai . • We earned 1,853 guest reviews on the country’s user review app dianping.com for an average of 4.85/5, which put us in the top 1% of all Western restaurants in Shanghai. • Stone Brewing Tap Room was consistently named as a favorite beer bar in Shanghai in 2018 and 2019 • Named Best Beer Program in Asia’ by Drink Magazine Asia, Asia’s leading bar industry trade journal. • The Tap Room was consistently profitable in each month of operations since its third month. Our team in China is recognized for being the best there is, and they have been committed, enthusiastic, and bleed the Stone revolutionary… in short, they’ve been everything we ever asked for. We are so very thankful for all they did to help independent American craft beer earn its place in China, which only makes the hurt around this decision sting even more sharply.
