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"What we're hearing from our distributors and some of the general press," North Coast Brewing CEO Jennifer Owen explained to Craft Brew News, is to "stay true to your core products and what you know." And that's what the nearly 36 yr old northern California brewery has been doing right along. It continues to stick to "our solid, traditional brands," led for many years by Scrimshaw pilsner and Old Rasputin Russian imperial stout. "No one would ever accuse us of being trendy," Jennifer quips. But that's part of the co's long-term focus. It aims to remain a sustainable business for both shareholders and its community for the long haul, she told us, a goal exemplified by the B Corp certification it received in 2015. It's been tough the last few yrs, of course. North Coast's volume declined again last yr, now in the ballpark of 43K bbls, Jennifer shared. That's over 1/3 below the co's peak volume back in 2015. But it's "hanging in there," she reported, sticking to a "really modest projection" for 2024, "practically flat." To get there, she's working on "maximizing flexibility and efficiency" as sales veep Chris Hudson "leave[s] no stone unturned."Seeking Geographic Oppys and Chain Coverage Chris stepped in as sales veep in early 2023 from his prior role leading natl chains and takes a "very process oriented, very strategic" approach, Jennifer said. And "that is exactly how you need to be right now" as there's "no room to hope and pray." Looking under every stone for the next sale takes time, but he's starting from a geographic perspective. CA is around 60% of its biz, and other western states make up a big chunk too. But North Coast sells beer in 47 states total, usually working with just one distrib in each. So the co's looking into whether its existing network is "covering every populous area" and if there's "anyone else who would cover these areas," Jennifer said. Chris' team is also "looking at each chain, where do they cover" and shoring up its strategy there.New Scrimshaw, Old Rasputin Packs, Plus Acme Lager Early 2024 was slow, just as co expected, Jennifer shared. But "April orders came in strong" and looks like a "good month" so far, as new products start rolling out. That includes new Acme lager, on a smaller scale, which Jennifer expects to find "a different fan base" from co's flagship pilsner. Speaking of, co is also launching 19.2 oz cans of both Scrimshaw and Old Rasputin, plus a 6-pk of Scrimshaw cans, which have only ever been in 12-pks, she noted. Incredibly, co still sells more bottles overall, driven by 6ers of its 2 lead brands in its home mkt.Co also recently released a new barrel-aged version of Old Rasputin, this time partnering with Oregon's Westward Whiskey to age the beer in single-malt whiskey barrels. And tho North Coast isn't planning to shift focus away from its longtime leaders, "we know we need to innovate more," too, Jennifer acknowledged. Co's relatively new asst brewmaster Obed Salazar is in year 2, coming over from AB after some time at Golden Road. He's "bringing in new ideas, lots of energy" and "shaking up" co's processes with a new larger pilot system and new process for experimenting and scaling recipes up, Jennifer told CBN."Very Little Room for Error" Maintaining flexibility while finding more efficient ways to operate means North Coast will keep bottles around for longer. The fact that cans haven't overtaken bottles yet suggests to Jennifer that bottles, cans and kegs "all need to be part of our mix." Yet the co is still contracting out can production. It aims to bring that in house, but that project is only in the planning phase, slowly "moving toward reality."In the meantime, she's been taking another "look at all our operations and our costs," doing "deep dives into our COGS," because you "just can't skate along anymore." But that's part of her background, recall. Jennifer joined the co as controller in 2018, stepping up to CFO a yr later. For years she worked for the city of Fort Bragg, North Coast's hometown. Sometimes it "feels like I missed the fun time" in craft, she reflected, and came in as "the fixer." Yet she's upbeat and practical about the tasks at hand. For her, craft beer needs to be "special, high quality" and "hand crafted," in part to be worth a higher price. Right now, there's "very little room for error, very little margin," she commented.Maintaining the co's status as a B Corp means everything costs even more. "We can't go the cheap route on anything." It's "expensive, but really important," she and the co's longtime core group of shareholders know. They "firmly believe" that "this is the way the world needs to operate," she shared. "We live in a small town next to the ocean. Our community depends on the ocean and our community depends on us." So they'll keep plugging away thru more of craft's ups and downs.

North Coast Takes the Long View: Turning Over Sales Stones, Maximizing Flexibility in Tight Time

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