John Patrick Najeway
Co-owner
Thirsty Dog Brewing Co.
The craft beer business has been a great place to be the last five years. Sales have been steady and we have completed two large expansions and start another expansion with tanks arriving on Friday.
Most of the growth for us continues to be local and within Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. We do see the margin in that growth shrink with raw materials continuing to go up. Glass is tied directly to the oil market, so it fluctuates. We are already seeing the drought this year is going to send grain prices soaring in the coming months.
Shipping changes day to day with fuel surcharges, and paperboard for all the packaging coming and going continues to rise.
With all the raw materials going up, we have maintained our prices for the last three years and will be looking at those raw materials as pricing is set for 2013.
The best trend I have witnessed is the local appeal of products and our support from the Akron and Northeast Ohio consumer. We have many local suppliers for all materials used at the brewery with labels, six-pack cases, and many special ingredients coming from within a 300-mile radius.
Recycling continues to help, with all spent grain going to local dairy farms and Crown Point Ecology Center in Bath.
With the economy not showing any strong indicators of rapid improvement, we will focus on being more efficient in our processes and continuing to grow local first. The plus side to all the growth is we have maintained a steady work force and continued to add jobs over the last three years locally and statewide.