Beer Marketer's Insights - Bank Filed Suit vs Bevana (Community Brewing Ventures/D9); Peeved Partners

Messy situation unfolding between D9 Brewing/Community Brewing Ventures (Bevana) platform, its brewery partners and its bank, as several allege the platform has been withholding payments and bank filed lawsuit. Recall, Community Brewing Ventures raised $2.5 mil in early 2021 seed round, then touting plans for "cloud-based manufacturing model" and sales with 300K bbls/yr capacity and signing on several small brewery partners (see Vol 12, No 15 issue). A tall task this day and age in craftland. Co partnered with several more small brands, rebranded as "Bevana," and added e-comm and sales components to its services on top of offering financial and production support.Fast-forward to earlier this mo, as SouthState Bank sued D9 and affiliate cos/key personnel in NC's Mecklenburg County Superior Court, alleging breach of contract for failing to pay proceeds and its loan in full, seeking $149K plus interest, reported Charlotte Biz Journal. Some of its small brewery partners also calling Bevana out for not paying agreed-upon fees and sales royalties, Good Beer Hunting reported, including Pontoon Brewing also "pursuing legal action," alleging it's owed "hundreds of thousands of dollars." Pontoon is in process of filing for Chapter 11 and another partner brewer, Champion Brewing, closed its facility in Jun, article noted. "At least seven" of Bevana's partner breweries have now shut down their breweries entirely, closed their taprooms or sold their brands. Others chose not to renew contracts with Bevana citing failure to improve sales, among other reasons. And several Bevana brands are declining steep double-digits in scans, GBH showed.D9 Brewing/Bevana is "contesting" SouthState bank's "predatory practice of repeatedly refinancing loans in 1-year increments as a method to gain further profits," D9 co-founder Andrew Durstewitz told Charlotte Biz Journal. And Andrew told GBH of Bevana's "more careful" partnership selection going forward, claiming that several brands co brought on initially were already "a ticking time bomb." But in any case, Bevana's model has proven challenging.

Bank Filed Suit vs Bevana (Community Brewing Ventures/D9); Peeved Partners

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