Through Adversity and Milestones: My 24-Month Recap of Rebuilding a Local Brewer’s Brand Purpose

Walk into a grocery store towards any aisle, and you will find consumer package goods of all categories assaulting every one of your mind's receptors. Behind the scenes, suppliers and distributors work tirelessly to restock shelves and organize merchandise, competing fiercely for prime real estate in the form of eight-inch 6pk shelf facing, aisle endcaps, floor displays, shelf talkers, and cooler side case stackers. But the invisible competition is intense, and big brands are throwing dollars at the problem to win back lost market share. For local brewers, this has made the selling game nearly impossible as they struggle to compete with the deep pockets of multinational corporations.

People are back to spending their money, but not in the same way as before the pandemic. From 2021 through 2022, we all experienced a host of macroeconomic factors, including 15% inflation, supply chain shortages, record transportation costs, interest rate hikes, and lower consumer spending – look at the current egg prices! And yet, there are some notable exceptions, particularly among local brewers. The Tank Brewing Company, for example, has grown an impressive 65% since 2019, despite these challenges. 

At the end of 2022, Gold Coast President Frank Schweip said, "There are two breweries showing signs of anti-gravity, New Belgium & Tank Brewing Co; keep doing what you guys are doing." Considering the slowdown of craft beer sales nationally, these were massive words to hear. But what accounts for Tank’s success? What is the secret formula? And why am I leaving now?

Watching, Listening, and Communicating

Before I joined the team in March 2021, The Tank Brewing Company had a broad and shallow approach to selling its products. Their strategy: open in as many states as possible. Their rationale: by spreading products everywhere, sales would pour in. Today every single state has a brewery with a following and its own version of every variety of beer imaginable. Expanding a local brand's reach across state lines in these post-pandemic times should not be your first plan. Say you talked a national grocery chain into selling your product. How would you convince a distributor that the product will not expire on the shelf? 

Therefore, to scale a brand, you must start by understanding the connection between consumer and product. My former Lagunitas Brewing Company VP of Sales Greg Merideth once said, “You have two eyes, two ears, one mouth; use them." The lesson here, listen twice as much as we speak. Your consumers have a lot to say; let them drive your decision-making from time to time. The rest of the time, listen to your salespeople; they know where the areas of opportunity are hiding. 

The pandemic altered how distributors adopt and decide which brands to prioritize. So instinctually, what we changed about The Tank Brewing Company were the bits and pieces that held the brewer back in the first place. We built strong communication channels with our distributors and sales managers. We worked hard at removing the friction between the retailer and the product. We understood that sales would only materialize if we built a brand over time. 

The Tank Brewing Company was only founded in 2016 but has recently seen a massive surge in sales since 2021 - over 1,000 buying retail outlets (630 new), all spread throughout Orlando, Tampa, Palm Beach, Miami, and the Florida Keys. New businesses include recognizable staples like Disney, Hard Rock Stadium, Walmart, Publix stores, and many oceanfront tourist havens.

I remember walking into the brewery on day one, feeling stripped of all the resources I had grown accustomed to at Lagunitas Brewing Company. No national sales team, no brand recognition, no distributor relationships, no company vehicle, no expense budget, and no chain programming. But instead of dwelling on what I lacked, I focused on what I could bring to the table. There was no time to look back – only forward, toward the future I wanted to create.

Disentangling Product Offerings and Pricing 

The next step was to streamline our sales strategy by trimming the fat. Simply put, we had to discontinue underperforming brands holding us back. After analyzing sales data and taking input from our distributors, we axed over 20 SKUs, including the award-winning La Finca, Belgium-style Saison. While most of these brands were still available in our Miami taproom, they no longer made sense to offer through distribution channels.

At The Tank Brewing Company, we've always been committed to producing top-quality beer. To achieve this, we narrowed our focus on our core brands: La Playita Hop-Accented Pilsner, Freedom Tower American Amber Ale, Lo-Ca Low-Calorie Tropical Blonde Ale, and El Farito IPA. Though difficult, dropping certain products was necessary for our growth. With pricing now standardized across the state and a more focused lineup of products, all that remained was building out our sales team.

Building a Sales Team: Zero Sales Experience = 100% Perfect

Frankly, I didn't think traditional salespeople had the resilience for our new direction. I needed people currently working in hospitality or who had a service job. People who could deliver excellent service while shrugging off the slings and arrows ubiquitous in the service industry. In short, I wanted folks who could turn stresses into strengths. Selling is all about service and endurance, and it demands resilient people. 

With a new sales team in position, I began my work to toughen them up for the job. This meant long days, exposing them to countless rounds of rejection, teaching them our sales language, even the art of small talk, which (internally) we called phone sex. By August, they were bringing home kills almost daily. They were glowing with confidence. Each of them had something special, and it was my job to cultivate their powers and expose them to their blind spots along the way. For me, growing such a phenomenal team was the most rewarding part of the job. 

Hard Work Is our Competitive Differentiator 

I brought on a Marketing Coordinator early on who was tasked with engaging consumers on social media and creating content that would genuinely intrigue them. It was vital that we didn't focus solely on the number of likes we received, but rather on the impact our content had on consumers.

In-person store samplings provided the perfect opportunity to implement what we were learning online. In addition, we saw samplings as opportunities to build our brand, and they paid off in the number of products sold. In 2021, our new marketing team executed 125 samplings, and in 2022, they doubled the previous year's total by carrying out an impressive 255 samplings.

Our brands started to grow on our audience, and with visibility as our constant, we slowly built up a loyal following. We knew that the quality of our products would keep people coming back for more.

Our uniqueness and individuality set us apart from the competition. We crafted a thoughtful plan for presenting ourselves publicly, from how we spoke about each brand to the tone of our emails and even our sales pitch. We carefully pointed every opportunity toward our plan, and although the work was repetitive, it was also incredibly satisfying. My advice? Continually iterate your plan as all competitive advantages decay over time.

Why Only Two Years? 

I knew that leading a team would require a certain discipline that I could only earn through experience. I also knew that success within a two-year timeframe would demand my A-game. Similarly, if the role involved managing distributors, I would need to build relationships quickly and communicate effectively. These are skills that I was eager to develop and strengthen through action, pushing myself to new heights and challenging my limits. By the end of it all, I knew that I would emerge as a changed person, ready to tackle any obstacle in my path.

I remember walking into the brewery on day one, feeling stripped of all the resources I had grown accustomed to at Lagunitas Brewing Company. No national sales team, no brand recognition, no distributor relationships, no company vehicle, no expense budget, and no chain programming. But instead of dwelling on what I lacked, I focused on what I could bring to the table. There was no time to look back – only forward, toward the future I wanted to create.

I promised myself and Carlos Padron, the founder of Tank Brewing, that I would put my all into the role for no more than two years. It was a fair exchange - he would get a VP of Sales with a burning desire to succeed, and I would gain more valuable experience than if I had remained in my comfort zone at Lagunitas Brewing Company for ten more years.

The result? Over those two years, I learned what it truly means to be a servant leader – someone who puts the team’s success above their own. Building a brand is no easy feat, and our success at Tank was not linear; it came with its share of incredible highs and devastating lows. Furthermore, though we made mistakes along the way, we celebrated each other’s wins no matter the size, forging bonds that will last a lifetime.

About the Author

Joe Reyes is the former Southeast US Regional Team Manager at the California-based brewery Lagunitas Brewing Company. He served 24 months as Vice President of Sales, USA, for Miami-based brewer, The Tank Brewing Company. Joe has a proven record of team building and growing brand equity. As a team motivator, he establishes, inspires, and elevates a team culture where everyone has a voice and goes all-in. Joe builds a foundation for better retail positioning, greater floor space, and broader brand visibility. He has a hands-on management style where nothing is too large or too small - if it needs to get done, it gets done.