Craft Brewery Owner Expands Slowly on Purpose Amid Industry Shakeout
Photo: Unsplash/@officestock
Nate Kowalski opened his first Bucks County taproom eleven years ago, during the height of craft brewing's national expansion boom. Unlike several regional competitors who opened four or five locations within a few years, Kowalski added just one new taproom roughly every three years.
"Everyone told me I was leaving growth on the table," Kowalski said. "Then the shakeout happened, and a lot of the breweries that expanded fastest are the ones that don't exist anymore."
His fourth and newest taproom opened last year in a renovated mill building outside Doylestown, funded entirely through retained earnings rather than outside investment or debt. Kowalski says the slower pace let him build enough of a cash cushion to survive a difficult stretch when aluminum can costs spiked and several restaurant accounts closed.
Industry consolidation has hit especially hard among breweries that scaled distribution before building a loyal local taproom base, according to a regional brewers guild Kowalski helped found. He says he has no fixed plan for a fifth location.
"I open the next one when the last one has paid for itself," he said. "That's the whole strategy."
