Ep. 68: Justin Fisch of U.S. Beverage and Jeremy Ragonese of Uinta Brewing

Today we are joined by Justin Fisch of U.S. Beverage and Jeremy Ragonese of Uinta Brewing to talk about the recent acquisition.   ---table of contents--- 00:00 Intro - new intro music, new pod, new you, new us.  01:45 - Justin Fisch of US Beverage joins the call, announcing acquisition of Uinta Brewing.  02:40 why now? 04:25 Jeremy Ragonese of Uinta joins. production brewer joins marketing company -- "marriage of complimentary strengths."  07:00 in talks for about a year.  07:30 uinta focusing on western market, retrench, cash-flow positive. 09:00 analyzing business, most likely distrib changes but not jumping into that immediately.  next 90 days looking at network.  10:10 us bev brings distrib/retail relationships and diverse portfolio to table, and do uinta mountains go east-west? 13:00 managing expansion and distribs through portfolio management at market level.  14:35 days of expanding to 48 states overnight are over, "that window has closed." 15:00 hyper-local had its day. now distribs/retailers looking for reliability.  17:00 salt lake perf located to supply west, mountain, and midwest.  19:00 uinta retrenched to the west, what are expansion plans? no mad rush, but door is open.  21:00 short vs long-term planning.  21:30 financial arrangement.   22:30 us bev is a buyer "down the road" in craft beer space.  23:15 usb/uinta as a bev platform.  24:00 the importance of scale today.  25:15 any beyond beer aspirations? (spoiler alert: yes).  30:00 cost challenges for smaller craft is going to be tough.  33:00 messages of hope and optimism. ---About--- Beer Business Daily publisher Harry Schuhmacher joins his editors and other guests once or twice a week as they grok the industry issues of the day.   -Podcast Hotline: Text or call Harry in confidence at:‪ (262) 345-2501‬ -Audio/Video feeds at https://linktr.ee/beernet -Articles referenced at beernet.com -Twitter / IG / TikTok:  @beerbizdaily