Craft brewers ranked among fastest growing companies in the country

August 30, 2013Chris Crowell

Each year, Inc. magazine ranks a list of the 5,000 fastest growing private businesses in the country. If you scroll through the 2013 list, you may notice a few of your fellow craft brewers.

The highest up in rankings is Oskar Blues Brewery – this is the 4^th year on the list for Colorado’s second largest craft brewer.

The Inc. list measures revenue growth from 2009 through 2012, and each company must be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit and independent — not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies. The minimum revenue required for 2009 is $100,000; the minimum for 2012 is $2 million. Revenue figures given in the company profiles are for calendar year 2012.

Anyway, from 2010 to 2012, Oskar Blues Brewery, showed 198 percent growth, going from $11.3 million in revenue in 2009 to $33.7 million in revenue in 2012. The 2008 addition of a 35,000-square-foot brewing facility in Longmont, Colo., and continual infrastructure improvements fueled the brewery’s growth in existing markets, until 2012, at which time the company expanded distribution into Ohio, Illinois, Alabama and Kentucky. The brewery more than doubled barrelage production during the three-year span, jumping from 42,000 barrels (bbls) in 2010 to 85,750 bbls at the close of 2012.

Oskar Blues Brewery continues to experience explosive growth, kicking off brewing operations in December of 2012 at the craft brewer’s second location in Brevard, N.C. The North Carolina location is on pace to hit 50,000 bbls in its first year while the brewery is on pace to produce 125,000 to 130,000 bbls overall in 2013. The company has 220 employees, adding 46 in the last three years.

Other breweries on the Inc. list this year:

Narragansett Beer, located in Providence, R.I., came in at No. 2,437 after a three-year revenue growth of 148 percent, from $3 million in 2009 to $7.4 million in 2012. Narragansett has 114 employees and added 41 jobs in the last three years.

Stone Brewing, located in Escondido, Calif., came in at No. 2,976 on the list after three-year growth of 114 percent – from $48.4 million in 2009 to $103.4 million in 2012. Stone has 505 employees and has added 220 jobs in the last three years.

New Glarus Brewing, located in New Glarus, Wis., ranked 3,979 on the Inc. list with a three-year revenue growth of 68 percent – going from $18.6 million in 2009 to $31.4 million in 2012. New Glarus has 80 employees and has added 23 jobs in the last three years.

New Belgium Brewing, located in Fort Collins, Colo., ranked 4,804 on the overall list with a three-year revenue growth of 41 percent. The company jumped from $127.6 million in revenue in 2009 to $179.6 million in 2012. The company has 457 employees and has added 122 in the last three years.