This maybe another reason for the purchase of Garden Beverage, who knows.
I bet you Bob and Michael knows.
Beer Sale Battle Brews
November 7, 2005
MADISON, WI -- Wisconsin’s growing craft beer industry is raising red flags about legislation before the state senate.
The Capital Times reports that legislation has moved on to the state senate that would require small craft brewers to build or lease a distributing facility separate from their brewery if production exceeds 100,000 barrels during a calendar year.
Deb Carey, founder and president of New Glarus Brewing Co., told the newspaper that the bill would cause great harm to the state’s craft beer industry.
“This is about small brewers retaining the right to transport beer,” Carey said, stressing that most craft brewers have built their businesses from meek conditions and therefore making them construct a warehouse would be costly and unfair.
“Beer wholesalers are the only ones who benefit,” Fred Gray, president of Janesville-based Gray's Brewing Co., said in a written statement, adding, “This bill would limit competition among beer wholesalers, increase distribution costs for small brewers and ultimately result in higher prices and fewer choices for consumers.”
State Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald, (R-Horicon) introduced the legislation in October. The newspaper writes that he believes the bill is necessary to “protect the state legally in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in May in Granholm vs. Heald, which found that Michigan and New York laws granted in-state wineries a competitive advantage over wineries located outside those states.”
Fitzgerald also noted that he worked with craft brewers when drafting the bill, which resulted in the 100,000-barrel exemption.
“They wanted an exemption at 100,000 barrels of production, and some entities did not want them to have that. The largest one in New Glarus is at 45,000 barrels. That allows for some pretty good growth,” Fitzgerald told the newspaper.
"I did not want to create an unfair playing field,” Fitzgerald continued. “But if you get up to 30,000 barrels about a half million cases a year in direct shipment, you would have to build a warehouse. You have to play by the rules.”
Pete
GO GATORS
statements made by me are considered opinions of mine unless those statements are made of facts.
