The Riches are in the Niches

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This month on The True Craft Podcast we welcomed Nick and Christina Lumsden, Co-Owners of Dogleg Brewing Company out of Vista, CA and Dave Morgan, Founder of SingleSpeed Brewing out of central Iowa.
 
March was all about how to leverage a niche and a more cost-effective approach to distribution by collaborating with other small breweries.
 
*presses PLAY button*
 
Let’s begin.
March Episodes
March Takeaways
TAKEAWAY #1

Combine resources to create more profit in distribution

When we sat down with Dave Morgan from SingleSpeed Brewing, the first topic of discussion was their newly-founded Parallel Brewery Collective, a collaborative initiative between SingleSpeed Brewing and Backpocket Brewing, two breweries in central Iowa. This collective, which hopes to expand to include more breweries over time, is all in an effort to pool resources to maximize efficiency in distribution:

We were both doing a lot of the same things, so we thought “Why don't we streamline these operations?” We realized it can result in substantial savings. For example, if we want to try to compete in retail on the grocery shelf, that's hard with almost no buying power, right? But if we combine forces, we gain a significant amount of buying power with our distributors.

This collaborative effort isn’t merely about cost savings or buying power; it’s about leveraging collective strengths to thrive in a competitive market. By combining forces, both breweries gain not only financial advantages but also enhanced market presence and shared expertise!

A similar sentiment about collaborating with local breweries was echoed by Nick and Christina Lumsden from Dogleg Brewing Company when asked, funnily enough, about craft as an oversaturated market:

“Fortunately, the craft beer scene is super collaborative and cooperative. We lift each other up. And at the end of the day our main goal is to take some market share from big beer. There's a lot of coming together to make each other better. We work with breweries in our area and share all sorts of raw material and ideas. There's definitely some benefits to having a crowded market..

But naturally, there can be cons to having a crowded market, as Nick continues, “But we also need to do our share and we need to make sure that we’re attracting customers and business through our doors and into our tasting room.”

Which brings us to…

TAKEAWAY #2

The riches are in the niches

In the taproom, carving out a niche is essential for standing out amidst the multitude of options.

Dogleg, for example, focuses heavily on the golf market in San Diego. And not only do they collaborate with local courses, but they’ve also brought that community back to their taproom with a golf-focused space, golf-focused events, and even an in-house simulator!

Although our focus is still on craft beer and we're proud of the product we make, we knew and saw trends from other breweries in the area and other cities that you need something else, whether it's the good food, activities, themes, or engagement in the community. The most successful breweries we saw around here [in San Diego], definitely had something more than just a production facility and tasting room.

By definition, Christina and Nick are excluding a general audience in favor of a niche, specialized audience. That can feel risky and counter-intuitive at first. But at the risk of sounding like a broken record, you can’t just get by with great beer anymore if you want your taproom to thrive.

TAKEAWAY #3

Check the ego at the door

Chris, in conversation with Dave, highlights the importance of setting aside ego for the greater good of the business. As Chris observes, “[You all at SingleSpeed] have really placed the egos at your side and asked, “What do we need to do and what’s best for the business to move it forward?”

Dave responds:

"The older I get, the more important I realize that checking your ego is in almost every aspect of your life. That doesn't mean you shouldn’t be confident. But that's different than ego. You gotta lose the ego if you really want to move forward. And it’s not just about our own ego, but in those we work with too.

For example, when we're looking for distributors or retail partners to work with and if we feel they're carrying big egos with them...they probably won’t fully check the boxes for us.”

It’s one thing to be aware of your own ego, but it’s another to be aware of the egos of those you wish to call business partners and collaborators. The brewery and its legacy are larger than just a few people, and this is a helpful reminder when strategizing on how to move the business forward.

And that concludes this month’s The True Craft Podcast Recap!

If you haven’t already subscribed, you can do so here and listen to new episodes as they’re released.

See ya’ll at the end of April!

– Keaton

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