CO: Left Hand Brewing continues expanding in Longmont with purchase of building

Left Hand Brewing Co. continues expansion of its headquarters in Longmont with the purchase of a new building and an addition to of one of its largest existing buildings, Longmont Daily Times-Call reported on January 15.

The company recently closed on a 14,200-square-foot building for $995,000. The building is just east of a couple of buildings it bought last year as part of a $660,000 purchase of land and buildings just to the east of the main brewery. All the buildings bought this year and last have operating businesses in them, and the businesses in the old location will continue to operate for the next couple of years, Left Hand's president and co-founder, Eric Wallace, said. However, he expects to move into the new building by the end of this year.

The latest building purchase brings Left Hand's total footprint to about 81/2 acres, Wallace said.

"As volume keeps increasing, we keep getting tighter and tighter," he said.

Last year, the brewery -- which narrowly escaped September's flood damage with the exception of a small temporary lab space -- produced 65,879 barrels of beer, a 33 percent increase from 2012. Revenue was up 34 percent, Wallace said, to $16.8 million. Employee head count was 88 at the end of 2013, up from 77 in 2012. And the plan is to add more than a dozen people this year, he said.

The brewery also is adding 12,000 square feet to the south end of its main production building, Wallace said. That will be to house the laboratories that are part of its quality control systems, along with some offices.

The purchases this year and last now allow truck access to the brewery from the east that it previously didn't have.

"These are strategic purchases so we don't end up having to move," Wallace said. "We're invested in Longmont."

Left Hand currently distributes its beers in 26 states and has been named one of the top 50 craft breweries in the country for two years running. Its repeated double-digit annual growth is outpacing the overall growth of craft beer in the U.S., although the industry continues to grow steadily year after year. According to the Boulder-based Brewers Association, craft beer still only accounts for about 61/2 percent of total beer sales in the U.S.

"When will it stop? We don't know," Wallace said. "That's why we're trying to be conservative with our growth. We're not leveraged to the hilt."

17 January, 2014