Redemption Rock to make beers more widely available
Photo/Allan Jung
Redemption Rock CEO Dani Babineau (right), with head of marketing Dan Carlson
Worcester manufacturer Redemption Rock Brewing Co. has signed a new distribution deal, making its cans available in large quantities outside its taproom walls for the first time.
The deal announced on Thursday is with Craft Collective, a Stoughton beer distribution company. While Redemption Rock began canning its beer in November 2019, this is the first time those products will be widely available.
The deal is part of a strategy to expand Redemption Rock’s market and offer its beer to other communities throughout the state.
Redemption formerly worked with Night Shift, a brewery and beer distribution company in Everett throughout the pandemic until the distribution portion of the company closed in October. While looking for another distribution partner, Redemption Rock focused on smaller companies that would take the time to understand Redemption’s unique brand and not pressure the brewery for higher production numbers.
“We needed to look for someone who could work with us on a smaller scale, and also we worried about if we were partnering with a distributor that had much bigger brands in their portfolio that were selling a lot more that we would kind of get lost in that mix and not get the attention since we would be such a small percentage of their sales,” Dani Babineau, Redemption Rock CEO and co-founder said to WBJ during a Friday interview.
Craft Collective’s focus on smaller craft breweries and the willingness of its sales team to understand and respect the Redemption brand made it the perfect partner for the Worcester brewery, Babineau said.
Collective’s distribution locations include accounts both east and west of Worcester County as well as areas on the outskirts of the region. Meanwhile, Redemption Rock will continue to self-distribute its beer to local restaurants and accounts so it can continue its focus on the diversity of its beer portfolio and availability of choice, Babineau said.
“We don’t ever want to leave the state of Massachusetts as far as wholesale. We are not looking to be a big, regional brand. Instead we want to go deeper into our home state and really focus on our customer experience,” Babineau said.
Redemption’s main focus is still on its taproom but the unpredictability of COVID has made it hard to estimate product demand. However, one of the brewery’s goals is to produce 1,000 barrels this year, a substantial growth compared to last year’s 783 barrels.
Redemption Rock opened in January 2019. In October 2020, the brewery became a certified Benefit Corp. (B Corp), meaning it considers the social good in its business decisions, rather than focusing strictly on profits. For example, the company donates all tips from its taproom to a rotating list of local nonprofits.
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