One year after purchasing 10 Barrel Brewing from Anheuser-Busch, reports have surfaced that Tilray Brands has laid off the entire innovation brewing team and positions in administration and sales. The move comes a few days after the announced resignation of 10 Barrel founders Chris and Jeremy Cox.
10 Barrel Brewing was founded by the Cox brothers in 2006 who then sold the company to Anheuser-Busch in 2014. In early August of last year, AB sold off a broad collection of craft brands they had acquired over the years such as Widmer Brothers, Redhook, Breckenridge Brewery, Blue Point Brewing and 10 Barrel.
According to reports, the layoffs include well-known industry veteran and brewer Tonya Cornett who created 10 Barrel’s Crush series and is known in the industry for helping to popularize and promote sour, fruited and barrel-aged beers. She has won 16 medals at the Great American Beer Festival and 12 medals at the World Beer Cup over the course of her brewing career.
It is unknown the reason or strategy behind the gutting of employees at 10 Barrel, but the most likely scenario is that Tilray is looking to improve margins within their craft catalog by consolidating their various small brewery operations, opting to brew their brands under fewer roofs to cut costs.
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