WC 17/03/24
New “owners” at the Master cicerone programme :
Two new guys taking it over are longtime beer folks, one ex-Molson Coors, the other ex bar work. Plans to still stay in Chicago and to grow the education and training side of the program
Beer52 take over Eebria
Beer52 have bought parts or Eebria out of administration.
Eebria is an online platform to allow pubs to buy beer direct from breweries, with one invoice, the breweries then ship the beer individually to the pub, the pub pays Eebria and at the end of the month Eebria pays the brewery, after taking its cut.
This is a pre-pack administration, illegal in most countries, where all the i’s were dotted and the t’s all crossed before hand.
It means that potentially all of Eebria’s debts are wiped out, including any invoices it still has outstanding – which includes all the money it owes breweries for the last month’s worth of beers sent through it.
In recent years eebria’s reputation has suffered a bit, and it’s got competition now in the likes of Sellar – which has its own privacy issues that it’s been trying to address.
Beer52 also has a bit of a bad reputation, with beers being contract brewed for its subscription boxes rather than coming from the breweries themselves – and having the most notoriously bad unsubscribe system ever invented.
The guys at Beer52 are trying to be transparent about this all, but their initial communications came across as very gloating in the press release, saying they were now well funded and having a clean balance sheet. At a time when the breweries were wondering if they were going to get paid for their beer.
Beer52 are also saying that they are planning to try and build bridges and repair relationships with brewers.
I think if they’re serious about that, and want Eebria to be a platform that brewers use, they’re going to have to stump up the cash and pay those invoices.
New Micropub in Peterborough –
Not normally big news, but a local conservative councillor pushed against it because he didn’t believe that a residential area was the right place for a pub.
It’s the perfect place for a pub, pubs are the centre of their communities, it goes far beyond alcohol over the bar. The owner of this new micropub ran a pub nearby that’s been forced to close for redevelopment, leaving the community there without a place to go. Did beer fests, raffles, all manner of community activities.
Shows how much work there is still to do to educate out of touch politicians on the roles that pubs play, other than as a photo shoot opportunity when elections are coming up
You mentioned a new competitor to Eebria and Sellar. Are you able to say who that is? Or is it still in early development?
I couldn’t remember the name when I was filming, but it’s Beer Paradise: https://www.beerparadise.co.uk/