Brewery

3 Brewery Success Stories [2024]

Pat Walls

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Updated: October 6th, 2024

If well-planned, a brewery can be a profitable business. However, starting a brewery is not a walk in the park.

Opening a brewery requires a lot of planning, involves many decisions, and is capital intensive.

If you have decided to start a brewery, you must comply with the legal requirements. Then, understand the startup costs involved in starting a brewery.

Your brewery business plan must indicate the brewery concept and outline the brewery funding plans.

In this list, you'll find real-world brewery success stories and very profitable examples of starting a brewery that makes money.

1. Progress Brewing ($1.44M/year)

Diego Benitez, the founder of Progress Brewing, came up with the idea for his craft brewery while working in academia and as a technology analyst. After brewing beer at home with his colleague, Kevin Ogilby, and conducting extensive research on the brewing industry, they decided to open their own brewery. Despite facing challenges with permits and limited capital, they successfully launched the business in August 2013 and saw continuous growth, with a projected revenue of $2 million in 2019.

How much money it makes: $1.44M/year
How many people on the team: 5

How This Entrepreneur Started A $2M Craft Brewery

Progress Brewing, a craft beer company in South El Monte, saw continuous growth of 12-14% every month for 16 months straight and hopes to break $2M revenue in 2019 with a focus on high-value non-hype beer, excellent customer service, and providing an overall enjoyable experience.

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2. Varionica ($672K/year)

Davor and Matija started brewing beer as a hobby in college and fell in love with creating unique styles that couldn't be found in Croatia. Encouraged by positive feedback from friends, family, and bar owners, they took the leap and opened Varionica, becoming craft brewing pioneers in Croatia. Despite facing challenges, they persevered, adapting their business model and expanding their reach through a webshop and partnerships with retail stores. They have since won industry recognition and expanded their exports to the UK and Germany, with plans to enter more markets.

How much money it makes: $672K/year
How much did it cost to start: $10K
How many people on the team: 8

How We Started A Six-Figure Craft Brewery [From Croatia]

Croatian craft brewery Varionica shares how they started with only 22 kegs and an old Opel Astra, grew to produce roughly 40,000 liters of beer per month, and expanded successfully during the pandemic through an online shop and retail store partnerships.

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3. Waxing Kara ($396K/year)

Kara Brook Brown, the founder of Waxing Kara, came up with the idea for her business while working as an artist painting with encaustic, a paint made with beeswax. Through her beekeeping hobby, she became fascinated by honey production and the importance of bees to our food supply. This led her to start Waxing Kara, creating natural Bee Inspired food products and skin-loving bath and beauty goods that include ingredients made possible by honeybees.

How much money it makes: $396K/year
How many people on the team: 3

How I Started A $33K/Month Bee-Inspired Goods Business

This case study follows the journey of Waxing Kara, a Bee Inspired® food products and bath and beauty goods business which generates $33K per month, and highlights the importance of inventory management, education, and relationships with customers and bee colonies.

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Read by 7,286 founders