Southampton Brewery Partners with Pabst: Will Quality Suffer?
Southampton Bottling and Pabst Brewing Company have announced a strategic alliance that will expand the marketing and distributing of Southamptons ales and lagers.
This isn’t surprising as anyone familiar with Southampton has wondered when they’d try to "go national."
Kevin Kotecki, CEO of Pabst Brewing has said about the alliance, "Success in the craft industry today requires three key components: high-quality beers, a strong distribution network, and excellent marketing capabilities. This alliance combines all of these necessary elements. We are excited and energized by the prospect of working with a partner whose standards for quality and excellence are consistently recognized as world-class."
"The opportunity to distribute Southampton products to a wider base of consumers is something we have been interested in for quite some time," Southampton President Don Sullivan noted. "Pabst Brewing’s extensive sales and distribution network and its ability to provide superior marketing support ensures that our brands will have the ingredients for continued success."
Southampton’s brewmaster Phil Markowski will continue to oversee production of their current line of products. He will work closely with Pabst Brewing’s Robert Newman.
That is all well and good, but how many times have we seen terrific craft brews gobbled up by big brewers only to see the distinctive flavors disappear, resulting in watered down beers that are mere shadows of their former selves? I’m worried, but I guess we’ll see how this plays out.
From a marketing angle, this is a clever alliance for ShAL. Pabst has street-cred in the craft beer movement and is seen as being (almost) a respectable beer in the American Standard Lager category. (Personal aside: Pabst did win first place in a private “blind” taste test of American Standard Lagers that I participated in a few years ago.) We’ll see what happens with the taste, but Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada put out decent beer on a large scale (admittedly I don’t find either of these two lines all that interesting, but they taste fine to me).
Pabst? Isn’t that like Reingold?
considering Millers knock up job with Celis…Phil better not let them have too much input…..i’d be nervous too. The pumpkin and white brews are very special.
I have been drinking Southampton beers since they opened in 1996. They had great beers then and continue to make superior beers today. Over the years, they have increased distribution drastically and the quality of the beer hasn’t suffered in the least. People who are skeptical about the Southampton, Pabst alliance have nothing to worry about, Southampton’s master brewer Phil Markowski has too much integrity and pride in his beer to let the quality of it diminish. I find it exciting to be able to go on vacation in the future and be able to buy their beer if I am on the West Coast. Way to go guys!
I do marketing for Pabst Blue Ribbon, and can say from first-hand experience that any comparisons people are making to AB’s aquisitions of craft breweries and the watered-down beer that has resulted are alarmist at best. Pabst really is a different kind of company from the big 3 (soon to be big 2) and the team that heads up the marketing dept at Pabst (my bosses) are an amazingly great group of people- the least “corporate” types you’d ever want to meet. My understanding of this is that Pabst will be helping with marketing and distribution, while brewing and quality control will be left to the people at Southhampton.
I do marketing for Pabst Blue Ribbon, and can say from first-hand experience that any comparisons people are making to AB’s aquisitions of craft breweries and the watered-down beer that has resulted are alarmist at best. Pabst really is a different kind of company from the big 3 (soon to be big 2) and the team that heads up the marketing dept at Pabst (my bosses) are an amazingly great group of people- the least “corporate” types you’d ever want to meet. My understanding of this is that Pabst will be helping with marketing and distribution, while brewing and quality control will be left to the people at Southhampton.