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With new leadership settled in, new brands within a more focused portfolio and a clear plan to correct the "misses" of 2024, Ohio's Great Lakes Brewing Co looks to keep solidifying its biz in 2025. Last yr was "good, not great," co-CEO Chris Brown told Craft Brew News. GLBC finished the yr "slightly behind plan" in terms of volume, shipping just shy of 115K bbls, he shared, down low single digits. That's on par with a number of other top craft players that didn't necessarily grow but outperformed the craft segment and beer category. Co was actually "well ahead" thru the first half of the yr and into the second half, "having an incredible year," Chris shared. But then "what happened to everybody" hit Great Lakes too as "everything just hit the brakes." Recall, co's founders Pat and Dan Conway and the board appointed Chris and Steven Pauwels to lead the company as co-CEOs after the departure of prior CEO Mark King last spring. Chris had been the co's chief commercial officer, with Steven serving as COO after a long career at Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City. The pair entered 2025 with their feet under them, Chris reported, with a clearer understanding of how to divide responsibilities and co-manage the co. Essentially, Chris takes "anything consumer facing," still running sales and mktg, plus the pub, store, events, etc, while Steven works more "behind the scenes."Chris, Steven and co remain focused on its own biz, making the commercial tweaks needed to succeed, revamping its pub and getting closer to a long-term solution to unify its brewing operations. But co has 60+ distrib partners across its 16 state footprint and there's "so much going on" in the middle tier, Chris observed. "The consolidation is tough," he commented. "Some of our best partners are reworking how they do things," and "as you get outside of state lines, [it's] getting harder and harder to get traction," he continued. With "all things in flux," GLBC execs are "looking at the business in every sense of the word," knowing that they've "got to be nimble" and not hold on too tight "just because something's always been around."Asserting Seasonal Leadership and Getting Timing Right for Christmas Ale Seasonals have famously "been getting hammered" for a couple yrs now, as Chris put it. And while GLBC isn't a top 10 player in craft overall, it's #5 in seasonals, he pointed out. Releases generally crept earlier over the last decade or so, but in conversations with major retailers, Chris senses "the whole dynamic of seasonal is changing a little bit." And given co's size there, he feels "we need to be leading in what those changes are," he told us.GLBC's scale in seasonal is driven by its famed Christmas Ale, natch. But timing turns out to be key. The combo of broad movement away from 6 pks and the shift of Thanksgiving a wk later really hit the brand last yr, Chris shared. It was "almost like losing a week of sales," he acknowledged. And the holiday falls that way for the next few yrs, too. So co has been working on how to "counter" that impact, looking at ways to "merchandise differently at retail," for instance, to make the most of the shorter window for this huge brand. Meanwhile, co was "up on seasonal all year long" before Christmas Ale, Chris said. So while many in the industry pull back from those rotational brands, co has "to consistently tout" that Great Lakes remains strong there.Reaching New Beer Drinkers with Cold Rush While Balancing with Dort For yrs, execs at GLBC questioned launching a more mainstream lager brand, concerned it would just be "eating away" at its top yr-round brand and biggest draft brand, Dortmunder Gold. And while Dort "grew in draft last yr," key pkgs declined amid much more intense competition from craft-aligned lighter lagers. Mid-last yr, Great Lakes also launched Cold Rush, "Cleveland's light lager," as co sez. And it "will be a huge focus for us this year" as co's committed to building Cold Rush in its home Northeast Ohio mkt first, "the way we used to," Chris remarked. Local media push starts soon, plus "some special billboard campaigns" to build awareness for a "light beer that's actually made here."Getting the balance right with Dort will be tuff, Chris knows. But Cold Rush's "price point is totally different," with 12ers going for only a couple $$ more than Dort 6ers. Co's just got to "segment it and market it as such." And since it's worried about trading existing consumers down, it's "focusing on finding some new ones," Chris said. In craft, "we've always been waiting for them to start their arc" and convert them over to taking a long-term "craft journey." But with Cold Rush, co wants to "be part of your intro for beer," including for consumers that may never become interested in the rest of the variety within craft.Fixing the IPA Mix with Pair of "Midwest" Entries; Shift in Vty Pks GLBC's "number one win last year" was new Midwest IPA, a "lighter, easy drinking" take on the style that immediately became co's #2 draft brand. It's really trying to focus on building that brand long-term and knows it "can't just keep coming out with new brands" farther away from home. So co discontinued its prior hazy IPA, Hazecraft, replacing it this yr with Midwest Hazy in a limited footprint, mostly on draft. "Let's stop creating 15 different brands," the co concluded about its IPA portfolio, choosing instead to "lean into" the "Midwest" brand and "create a level of comfort" with it that gets consumers to stick with the brand rather than jump around among lots of different ones.At same time, co also changed up its variety pack program, removing its bottled 12-pk and canned 15-pk, keeping only its existing IPA-focused pack and adding a mix pk of core brands in cans. Cold Rush will cycle into that pack for 6 mos out of the year, with Dort the rest of the time. The only brand that will be in both vty pks all the time is Midwest IPA. Graphics will rotate with the beers. Co faces tuff comps on vty pks as it converts to this mix, but feels like it "had to make this move for the future," Chris explained.Brewery Project and Pub Revamp Coming Meanwhile, GLBC continues to be "spread between two facilities," its original brewery downtown in the Ohio City nabe of Cleveland and its newer canning facility. And that adds "a bunch of extra costs," Chris acknowledged. Plus, the original facility is "really cool and amazing," but "not a building that was built for a modern day brewery." So since mid-2024, co's done "a ton of work" on what a unified solution will be and it's "much closer than we've ever been," he told us. But it won't be a major facility on a Scranton Peninsula property that a local real estate blogger suggested it might be earlier this yr, Chris confirmed. Co submitted plans for a grant, but nothing is firm with the likelihood of that property becoming "a park or a beer garden," not a big production facility.At same time, co's longtime brewpub is "in the midst of a lot of change," Chris said. "Beer sales are good," but it's hiring a new exec chef to "reimagine" the restaurant side and "relaunch with upgraded menu, new looks, new ideas" so that the 30+ yr old pub can "reflect the modern consumer." The way Chris sees it, the co's been "changing our beer" to reach those folks. Now it's time for the pub to do the same.

Change Afoot as Great Lakes Rebalances Lager, IPA Brands, Focuses on Building Core in Home Mkt

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