Lagunitas to axe 5 percent of jobs

USA | Having shifted some of Lagunitas’ export production to The Netherlands and Brazil, the Petaluma-based brewer has said it is cutting “under 5 percent” of its workforce, as part of a restructuring strategy. Lagunitas is estimated to employ under 800 people these days.

Founded in 1993, Lagunitas has been fully owned by Heineken since 2017. In an increasingly crowded craft beer market, in October 2018, it was already forced to lay off 12 percent of its employees, or about 100 workers. In the same year, it crossed the 1 million barrel (1.17 million hl) threshold in beer produced.  

The cuts, announced on 17 January 2020, were made after a “hard fought” 2019, according to Lagunitas’ CEO Maria Stipp. Dollar sales of its flagship brand Lagunitas IPA grew 3.8 percent in the off-premise, per market research firm IRI and quoted by brewbound.com. It remained the top-selling IPA in the country. Part of that growth, says brewbound.com, can be attributed to the company finally offering its flagship IPA in 12 oz (355 ml) cans.

Off-premise dollar sales of Lagunitas’ product range increased 0.7 percent, to nearly USD 185 million in 2019.