Avery Brewing Follows New Belgium With Quiet Layoffs

Avery Brewing quietly laid off six employees last month, a few of whom had been with the company for multiple years.

"While we did increase sales in 2017, we were staffed for more anticipated growth than we achieved and had to create an environment in which we can continue to progress in this dynamic industry," Avery spokeswoman Vanessa Cory said in an email. "The departed employees all made great contributions to our past success, and it was a heartbreaking decision to part ways with them. We took care of them through a severance package, and these employees will be eligible for future opportunities at Avery."

The cuts followed a similar move at New Belgium Brewing, which laid off 25 people in Fort Collins and three at its Asheville, North Carolina, facility in February. New Belgium also said the cutbacks had more to do with the brewery having staffed up to meet planned projections that didn't come true, rather than because of a decline in sales or business. The craft-brewing industry as a whole has faced slowing sales over the past two years.

Avery, which was founded in 1994 in Boulder, sold a 30 percent stake of its business to Spanish brewing conglomerate Mahou San Miguel last November. The move came just two years after Avery spent $30 million on a state-of-the-art brewing campus and restaurant in Boulder.

Chief Operating Officer Dustin Lemoine also resigned recently.