Lagunitas Brewing to lay off 12 percent of its workforce, affecting more than 100 employees

Undercover Shutdown, one of the exotic brews offered at the Taproom. The Lagunitas Taproom and beer sanctuary is a delicious secret on the east side of Petaluma featuring their superb beer, live music, and entertaining food. less Undercover Shutdown, one of the exotic brews offered at the Taproom. The Lagunitas Taproom and beer sanctuary is a delicious secret on the east side of Petaluma featuring their superb beer, live music, and ... more Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Lagunitas Brewing to lay off 12 percent of its workforce, affecting more than 100 employees 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Lagunitas Brewing Co., a Heineken-owned brewing company with headquarters in Petaluma, announced Tuesday that it would be laying off 12 percent of its workforce. The brewery cited a "retrenchment of the American craft beer market" as the reason for the layoffs, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

In addition to the main brewing operation in the North Bay, Lagunitas also has two taprooms in Seattle and Azusa, California, and a second brewing facility in Chicago. More than 100 people in every department of the roughly 900-person company will be affected, although the Petaluma location will experience most of the cuts.

"The craft beer market is rapidly evolving and, in many ways, more challenging," said Lagunitas CEO Maria Stipp in a statement. "More breweries, more choices ... very much like the late '90s when the craft beer segment had similar pressure."

Stipp said to combat the slowing of the market, the company would be refocusing on taking "steps to drive our flagship IPA." That beer, the Lagunitas IPA, is considered one of the paradigmatic examples of the West Coast IPA style.

"We do not take this lightly and are making every effort to do it in the right way, as these actions impact our valued co-workers, friends and community who have contributed to our tribe story," the statement continues.

Lagunitas Brewing was founded by Tony Magee in 1993 with a 420-friendly aesthetic and a penchant for resinous, "dank" IPAs and hoppy style-beers. The company grew exponentially over the next 20 years, but in 2015, Magee sold a 50 percent stake to Heineken. In 2017, Heineken purchased the other half. The company was valued at around $1 billion at the time, although the price of the sale was never disclosed publicly.

Lagunitas has recently been exploring non-beer business possibilities, starting with launching the production of Hi Fi Hops, a non-alcoholic sparkling water infused with THC in June. Shortly thereafter, the company released another non-alcoholic hop-flavored sparkling water.

Such struggles are not unique to Lagunitas. A year ago, Anheuser-Busch InBev's High End division, which manages Golden Road, 10 Barrel and others laid off 90 percent of its sales division. In June, San Diego's Green Flash Brewing scaled back plans to expand distribution to 32 states and laid off 15 percent of its workforce amid slowing sales. Then in August, Constellation Brands, which owns Ballast Point and Funky Buddha among other breweries, laid off around 60 employees while restructuring the company.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.



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