SAN DIEGO — West Coast and California beer lovers are in for a shock. Modern Times Brewery is planning on closing their Portland, Oakland, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles locations at the end of the week.
The brewery announced that the Point Loma, North Park, Encinitas, and Anaheim locations will remain open. They added as part of the closures, they will be turning their distribution and hospitality efforts back to Southern California and the Southwest exclusively. In a press release they say this will allow them to build a smaller, smarter, more focused, and more equitable company for the future.
A spokesperson for the brewery said, “It is a surreal and painful turn of events for us, and we realize that the suddenness of it puts many people we care about in very difficult positions. We truly wish that there were another way to resolve the financial issues we now face, but we have been put in a position—by the pandemic and global declines in the craft beer industry—from which this tremendously difficult path is the only way forward for us. While it is a path that we feel will lead to a renewed vision and new life for Modern Times, it doesn’t make taking these drastic measures any less heartbreaking.”
They also explained the reason behind the closures saying, “We’ve arrived at this current moment as the result of a combination of factors: four straight years of rapid, costly expansion followed by an unforeseen and financially devastating global health crisis, and an industry-wide decline in sales. Taken together, these factors have stretched our finances and company culture to a point that is simply no longer sustainable.
They also expressed their immense appreciation for the staff as well as for their customers before ending their letter.
To read their entire letter, click here.
