REDLANDS >> Around
two dozen employees from Hangar 24 Brewery were laid off earlier this
week as part of a restructuring effort, the owner said Thursday.
According
to brewery founder and Master Brewer Ben Cook, the layoffs came after
the company noticed it needed a different sales and marketing team and
personnel to address account needs.
“When we first started we had
numerous, smaller accounts but now we are in larger grocery and bar and
restaurant chains which requires (a) different (team),” he said. “To
that end, we’ve made some changes, adding about 50 new people and
letting less than two dozen go. To help us continue with our growth
pattern, we created a new director of operations position and we even
had to upgrade to an enterprise level accounting system.”
Cook
said that the new system caused a delay in payment to vendors and that
Hangar is currently “catching up” as a “result of that system
changeover.”
Earlier this year, Hangar celebrated its sixth
anniversary with its second AirFest, which took over the Redlands
Municipal Airport. The celebration was planned to raise funds for the
organization’s Hangar 24 Charities and celebrate the business’ growth.
Since
its opening, the Redlands-based company has not only become a
destination for beer lovers from across Southern California, but is one
of Redlands’ most successful businesses.
One of the employees who
was laid off early this week spoke to us on condition of anonymity, and
said the company was facing a “financial crisis,” but Cook says that is
not true.
“We are still growing like gangbusters,” Cook said.
“Our revenues increased by 50 percent to reach an all-time high over the
past year, and our distribution channels have also surged by 52
percent. As a result of this massive growth, we’re having to make sure
we have the right people in the right seats on the bus right now.”
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Expansion plans for 2015 are currently underway, along with the undertaking of next year’s AirFest, Cook added.
The
Airfest will once again benefit Hangar 24 Charities, which is now run
by an all-volunteer team after its former executive director Catherine
Grinnan and the brewery “mutually parted ways” earlier this summer.
“The
charity is a different entity from the brewery, so whatever issues the
brewery is having is different from a start-up charity. I’m sad people
lost their jobs, but I can’t officially comment on that,” she said. “A
lot of times there’s a restructuring and companies do that. But I don’t
know why.”
In addition to the AirFest, Hangar officials are also
in discussions with the city and officials from other neighboring
communities to open and build a new brewery and off-site tasting room.
“In
our beverage distributor division, we added several new craft brewery
and non-alcoholic suppliers, and added new distributors in California
and in other states like Nevada and Arizona. (And) we also opened up a
new 35,000-square foot distribution center in Redlands this year,” Cook
said.
- Source: http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com
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