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AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL
ECONOMIC INSIGHT BY KATHRYN HARDISON
I
KHARDISON@BIZJOURNALS.COM
512-494-2529
@ABJGOVERNMENT
IN BRIEF
Beermakers buck pandemic trends CONSUMER GOODS
CHAMBER WINS DEAL OF THE YEAR FOR TESLA PLANT The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce was honored with the 2020 Deal of the Year Gold Award from Busi- ness Facilities for helping to bring the Tesla gigafactory to Travis County. The award, announced Jan. 6, highlighted the 5,000 jobs Tesla has pledged to create at the $1.1 billion fac- tory, which is rising rapidly near the State Highway 130 toll road and Harold Green Road. Jack Rogers, editor in chief of Business Facilities, said the plant “vaults Austin into the top tier of automo- tive manufacturing hubs.” Manufacturing experts have told Austin Business Journal that Tesla could actu- ally bring significantly more than 5,000 jobs to the Austin area, especially if it establish- es a large battery production unit here. And the chamber estimates for every one job created by Tesla, four indi- rect and induced jobs will be created, such as at suppliers moving to the area or at local firms staffing up to service the factory. The gigafactory is slated to produce Tesla’s Model Y crossover vehicle and Model 3 lower-priced car, as well as its new Cybertruck and its Semi tractor-trailer. Tesla has indicated it will have the plant up and running in 2021. The Austin chamber beat out a $9.2 billion Grön Fuels complex in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the regional headquarters for managed care company Centene in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is expected to create 3,237 jobs. — Will Anderson
BY PAUL THOMPSON pthompson@bizjournals.com W ith revenue down more than 20% during the Covid-19 pandemic and construction underway on a mul- timillion-dollar fourth location, Pinthouse Pizza had to do some- thing drastic for the sake of the business: start selling its beer in grocery and convenience stores. Over the summer, the compa- ny struck a deal with grocers such as H-E-B andWhole Foods tomake its first foray into retail sales, begin- ning with cans of its popular Elec- tric Jellyfish IPA. Retail sales have been “crushing” ever since, saidNic VanBiene, Pinthouse Pizzamarket- ing director and co-owner. “We’ll be expanding on that a little bit in the coming weeks and months, too,” he said. “It’s relative- ly significant. It helpedus notmake tougher decisions.” Pinthouse Pizza was started in 2012 as a single brewpub onBurnet Road. It became known for com- bining tasty pies with its own beer and expanded to additional loca- tions in South Austin and Round Rock. Pinthouse never intended to sell its beers in retail stores, but lead- ers felt like they had to pivot over the summer “to keep these brew- eries going at full speed,” said Grant Weckerly, director of sales. The decision opened a new reve- nue stream and helped keep the company viable as it worked on ambitious renovations for its new location. “We’re probably selling, on aver- age, about 500 cases a week in the off-premise channel,” Weckerly said. “We’ve been really fortunate; everything we’re making sells out every week. So we have this almost model of guaranteed freshness.” Weckerly added that grocery stores account for roughly 80% of Pinthouse’s off-premise sales. Though Pinthouse Pizza brief- ly shut down its locations and fur- loughed employees at the start of In a resilient industry, Pinthouse stands out with new brewpub, expanded distribution
PAUL THOMPSON / ABJ This is what guests see when they walk into the taproom at the new Pinthouse Brewing.
the pandemic, it has now brought backmany of those jobs, said prin- cipal and operator Tyler Norwood. It has also added dozens of people to staff up its new brewpub at 2201 E. Ben White Blvd., which opened Jan. 6 in an old dance hall.The new location brings the company’s total headcount to about 270 employees, and Pinthouse is currently hiring for multiple positions across the chain. Pinthouse Pizza’s new brew- pub bucks a trend of closures for brick-and-mortar food and bev- erage businesses during the pan- demic, which has claimed some of Austin’s iconic bars and restau- rants. But the craft beer industry has been pretty resilient: the Tex- as Craft Brewers Guildhas recorded only eight closures across the state during the pandemic, according to TCBG Executive Director Charles Vallhonrat. He noted changes to regulations — like making it easier for bars and breweries to operate as restaurants — have helped out. “Luckily our closure rates are nowhere near what the expecta- tion was,” Vallhonrat said. “There have not been as many as we anticipated.” At the same time, 48 businesses joined the guild during 2020, Val- honrat said, only a slight dip from the 51 new members that joined TCBG in 2019. Breweries that have opened in Austin in the past year include Hold Out Brewing in Clarksville andMeanwhileBrewing in Southeast Austin.
“We’ve been really fortunate; everything we’re
Yet the industry has seen clo- sures, with Austin businesses such as Skull Mechanix and North by Northwest shutting down in 2020. The craft beer industry had a $5 billion impact on the Texas econ- omy in 2019, according to TCBG data. At the time, there were 341 craft breweries and brewpubs operating in Texas, which support- ed nearly 32,000 full-time jobs. The more than $6 million price tag for Pinthouse’s ambitious ren- ovations at the Ben White Boule- vard location marks a significant investment at a time when many are tightening their belts. The nearly 30,000-square- foot location will be Pinthouse’s first that doesn’t serve the brand’s trademark pizza. Rather, the loca- tion is more of a traditional micro- brewery tasting room, with an expansive bar andmore than 5,000 square feet of covered patio space. There is also a second-story bar area upstairs that can house up to 95 people. Pinthouse plans tomake the space, which features a catwalk above the brewery floor, available for private parties and events. “I think we just want to try new things. We like exploring,” Van Biene said of the company’s deci- sion to move away from pizza at its fourth location. “You’ve still got the same great Pinthousebeer, but it’s a wholenewfoodmenutocheckout.”
making sells out
every week. So we have this almost model of guaranteed freshness.” GRANT WECKERLY, Pinthouse director of sales
$112.5B
State of Texas revenue estimate for general-purpose spending in 2022-23, according to a Jan. 11 report from Comptroller Glenn Hegar. That represents a 0.4% decrease from 2020- 2021, which Hegar’s office attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic. Lawmakers face a roughly $1 billion budget shortfall, significantly less than expected. For more: https://bizj.us/1q878t
To see a slideshow of the brewpub: http://bizj.us/1q87tt
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