Displaying items tagged: Founders Brewing Co

Successful exits from West Michigan-based craft breweries are allowing company founders and investors to put their proceeds to work in new ways that reinforce the region’s entrepreneurial culture. 

A group of mostly West Michigan investors, led by former Founders Brewing Co. Chairman John Green, has acquired Natterjack Irish Whiskey maker Gortinore Distillers & Co. after partnering with the company’s founder to avoid liquidation, MiBiz has learned. 

John Green is bringing lessons he learned as an industry-agnostic investor and entrepreneur to a new craft beverage venture.

As part of the second wave of American craft breweries, Founders Brewing Co. leaned on its innovation to help fuel the industry’s surging popularity over the last decade.

GRAND RAPIDS — Founders Brewing Co. has announced its new CEO just two weeks after one of its co-founders indicated he would be stepping away from the leadership position.

In 1997, Mike Stevens teamed up with Hope College classmate Dave Engbers to turn their home brewing hobby into what is now known as Founders Brewing Co. It didn’t come easily, though, with 12 straight years finishing in the red, defaulting on two bank loans and staring down the barrel of bankruptcy twice. The Grand Rapids brewery eventually found its footing and became one of the largest craft breweries in the country. On Feb. 1, Stevens plans to step down in his role as CEO while still maintaining his ownership stake and serving on the board. MiBiz recently chatted with Stevens to reflect on his time at the helm.

GRAND RAPIDS — Founders Brewing Co. co-founder and CEO Mike Stevens is leaving his post at the helm of the craft brewery in the coming weeks.

While Larry Bell maintains that his patrons won’t see any noticeable changes after the planned sale of his Bell’s Brewery Inc. to the parent company of New Belgium Brewing Co., the two like-minded breweries have several synergies they could leverage to unlock cost savings.

CALEDONIA — Dan Vukcevich admitted that his only previous farming experience was growing up on a cattle farm that never made any money.

After a year of reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes increasingly difficult to capture all of the nuanced and at times discordant effects it has had on businesses. While some have thrived or pivoted, many others have struggled to hold on or closed up shop. 

With a relatively strong foothold already in the Philadelphia market, Grand Rapids-based Founders Brewing Co. recently announced that it has become an official sponsor for NBA team the Philadelphia 76ers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not doused Justin Buiter’s optimism in his future plans for his brewery. However, when Buiter looks ahead, he said 2021 will likely be spent regaining the footing his company lost during a gauntlet of a year.

GRAND RAPIDS — Founders Brewing Co. has temporarily laid off 89 employees as the bar, restaurant, entertainment and hospitality industries cope with recent health guidelines handed down by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Heading into 2021, Brewery Vivant has worked with its distributor to get three different six-pack placements into Meijer Inc. stores on a statewide basis. 

After canceling this year’s ArtPrize because of concerns over COVID-19, organizers of Grand Rapids’ flagship arts event and the largest art competition in the world have avoided questions about whether it will return.

As a global pandemic began to hit West Michigan, executives around the region stepped up to lead their organizations and their employees through the time of crisis. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Atwater Brewery, a Detroit-based brewery with a satellite taproom in Grand Rapids, has been acquired by Chicago-based Molson Coors Beverage Co., one of the largest international brewing conglomerates. 

While craft beverage industry insiders expect more deals ahead nationally in 2020, the market in Michigan may be poised to level off. 

After a deposition leaked in the racial discrimination lawsuit filed against Grand Rapids-based Founders Brewing Co., the brewery again made national headlines when Graci Harkema, its diversity and inclusion director, publicly resigned after less than a year in the position. Founders went on to settle the lawsuit, although the case has remained a topic of conversation in the craft beer industry. Meanwhile, Harkema has started her own business, Graci LLC, to focus on sharing diversity and inclusion best practices within the adult beverage industry.

A popular Grand Rapids brewery learned the hard way that focusing on winning a lawsuit can cost a company in other tangible ways if it loses first in the court of public opinion. 

Traditional, outdoor agriculture is profoundly dependent on climate, but high-tech indoor farms that grow premium, hyper-local produce for consumers year round may be commercially viable in the future.

Here is the growth report for September 14, 2019.

GRAND RAPIDS — A deepening partnership with a Spain-based minority shareholder provided Founders Brewing Co. Executive Chairman John Green the perfect timing to jump back into an early-stage growth company.

GRAND RAPIDS — Founders Brewing Co. is selling a majority stake in the business to the brewery’s Spain-based minority shareholder, MiBiz has learned. 

As more generations become exposed over time to the craft beer industry, brewers will face new opportunities to find growth and challenges to their existing business models. Add in a healthy dose of regulatory uncertainty and shifting market dynamics that could easily catch breweries off guard financially if they scaled up too large, too soon and it’s easy to see that the craft brewing industry remains in a state of constant flux.

In the hyper-competitive craft beer industry in which growth has started to level off in recent years, Old Nation Brewing Co. proves the exception to the rule. The Williamston-based brewery has garnered a name for itself with its M-43 brand, a popular New England-style hazy India Pale Ale that carries a suggested retail price of $13.99 per four-pack of 16-ounce cans.

Founders Brewing Co. has partnered with its Spanish investors to acquire a majority stake in a Colorado-based craft brewer.

Graci Harkema wants to break the craft beer industry’s bearded white male stereotype. In January, she became diversity and inclusion director at Founders Brewing Co., where she’s working to give employees opportunities to “be their authentic selves and achieve their goals.” Her hire followed a pair of controversies at Founders.

Here is the MiBiz Growth Report for Dec. 10, 2018.

The backlash against the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce over its controversial endorsement of GOP Michigan gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette continues to percolate.