Two Black-owned California breweries have formed a business alliance to better take advantage of the increasing retail and consumer interest in Black culture craft beer.
Full Circle Brewing Co., which also owns Sonoma Cider and Speakeasy Ales & Lagers has joined with Crown & Hops Brewing Co. to form Circle of Crowns Beverage Group which will encompass all four brands. There is no equity exchange, but the group will be leverage the efficiencies of a shared sales staff, ingredient purchasing, distribution networks and production. Full Circle currently produces Crown & Hops under contract at their brewing facility in Fresno, California.
“We are now an entity that has the production ability, the brands, the distribution network to answer the call of all these chains that know that a Black culture brand option on their shelves would be great for the mass consumer, but has yet to have an entity that can produce at the level to sustain those shelf spots,” Full Circle CEO Arthur Moye told industry writer Kate Bernot in an article in Sightlines.
Full Circle Brewing merged with Speakeasy Ales & Lagers last year to form the largest Black-owned brewery in the country. Only 1% of the over 9,000 craft breweries in the country are Black owned.
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