SPRINGDALE -- Jesse Core says his brewing company is continuing its expansion plans and
will open a pub in Fort Smith on St. Patrick's Day.
Core, the principal owner and founder of Springdale-based Core Brewing and Distilling Company, grew up, graduated high school and met his wife in Fort Smith. He said it was only logical to look back to his hometown to locate the company's second off-site Core Pub.
"It's one of the best ways to get our beer in the hands of more Arkansans," he said as he played with a burly bulldog puppy outside his brewery on a sunny afternoon. "They love beer in Fort Smith and they love locals."
Core is coy about when, and if, he'll continue to open more pubs around the state but said the brewery is in a growth phase and is aggressively looking at expansion opportunities and adding personnel.
The company recently hired Matt Biles as director of sales and marketing. Biles had worked as off-premise sales manager for Kansas City, Mo.-based Boulevard Brewing Company. The company also made some other personnel shifts, moving staff to new management positions.
The 2,000-square-foot Fort Smith location, at 701 Rogers Ave., will be the company's second pub. In the summer, Core opened an off-site pub in Rogers overlooking the busy intersection of West New Hope Road and South Promenade Boulevard near the Pinnacle Hills Promenade.
Core Pub offers 10 varieties of Core beer on tap as well as hot dogs -- the company's logo is a dachshund. The brewery also operates an on-site taproom at its Springdale brewing facility off Lowell Road.
Earlier this year, Core purchased additional space at its Springdale brewery location and now owns all of the warehouse complex. In April 2013, Core expanded its brewing capacity to 22,000 barrels annually, increased the size of its on-site taproom and added an outdoor seating area.
In Arkansas there are 19 active native brewery permits, which allow the operation of a small brewery or microbrewery restaurant in Arkansas, and six active microbrewery restaurant permits. A native brewers license allows a brewery to produce up to 30,000 gallons of beer annually or run a microbrewery restaurant that can make up to 5,000 barrels of beer a year but requires an attached restaurant that seats at least 50 and sells one meal a day.
The Core Pubs operate under microbrewery restaurant permits. They employ about 10.
Michael Langley, director of the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control Division of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, said there has been increase in applications for brewery permits over the past two years, but recently things have been more steady.
National beer production was down slightly in 2013, according to data from the Brewers Association, a Colorado-based nonprofit trade association focused on small and independent American brewers. The U.S. produced 196.2 million barrels of beer, down just shy of 2 percent compared with 2012. Craft beer made up nearly 8 percent of the total beer segment with 15.3 million barrels produced in 2013, an increase of 17 percent. A barrel of beer contains 31 gallons.
The overall beer market brought in $100 billion in sales in 2013, with $14.2 billion of that in the craft beer segment, a 20 percent revenue gain for craft beers compared with 2012.
Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association, said data for 2014 that's not been released show continued strong growth in the craft beer segment, both in production and revenue.
Watson said the Core strategy of opening brew pubs to feature the brewery's products builds brand recognition and gets the product in the hands of more potential customers.
"It's a good way to control how your beer is presented," Watson said.
He said the primary downside of opening pubs is the capital expense, but in a growing beer market without intense competition in the craft segment, it could pay off. Based on 2012 numbers, Arkansas has 0.6 breweries per 100,000 adults aged 21 or over, ranking 40th in the nation based on this standard.
Jesse Core said the chance to purchase the building in Fort Smith's growing downtown area was something he didn't want to pass up, and he's confident the city will embrace his pub and his product.
"For us, 2015 is going to be a big year," Core said.
SundayMonday Business on 01/11/2015