NC craft brewers reach compromise with wholesalers

At the end of a two-year battle, North Carolina's largest craft brewers have reached a compromise with state wholesalers, allowing them and other major brewers to at least double their production. annual.

The compromise was presented Wednesday to the General Assembly as part of a promise of bipartite legislation.

The founder of NoDa Brewery, Suzie Ford, and Tim Kent, executive director of the N.C. Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association, applauded the agreement in a joint statement.

"Today, the General Assembly is honoring the spirit of commitment and cooperation by tabling the Act on the distribution and modernization of craft beer," they said. "We are confident that its adoption will create new opportunities for the North Carolina beer industry. This measure will adjust existing legislation to create new options for growing breweries. "

Both parties are planning a press conference in the morning in the Legislative Assembly.

Brewers and distributors have been in disagreement for over two years. It was then that Ford, her husband Todd and John Marrino, owner of Olde Mecklenburg Brewery in Charlotte, started the battle for what they called "Craft Freedom".

They wanted to raise the ceiling of 25,000 barrels on the production of craft beer. Producing a barrel above requires brewers to sign an expensive contract with one of the largest distributors in the state. The so-called franchise law then gives distributors control over sales, marketing, deliveries, quality control and even prices. And the distributor essentially controls the rights in perpetuity.

This effort pitted the rapidly growing craft beer industry against mass retailing, a group that has increased its influence with political contributions of nearly $ 1.5 million over the past four years. More than 200 state-owned brewers have an annual economic impact of $ 1.2 billion, according to the NB Brewers Guild.

Both parties ended up in court after a House of Representatives committee had approved a diluted version of a bill to raise the cap. This would have increased the brewers' annual production limit from 25,000 to 200,000 barrels before a brewery had to contract with a distributor.

The compromise announced Wednesday would create a new category of "independent breweries of medium size" such as NoDa, Olde Meck and Red Oak. The largest capacity for self-distribution would be increased to 50,000 barrels. The new law would allow medium-sized breweries to distribute "up to" 50,000 barrels a year.

The breweries would not lose this authorization if they exceeded 50,000 barrels. However, this new authorization would be limited to breweries that sell less than 100,000 barrels of beer a year.