USA, NC: Weathered Souls Brewery looking for investors to prevent closure

When Weathered Souls Brewery Co. opened its Charlotte location in 2022, the news was met with great fanfare, it being the city’s only Black-owned brewery at the time. Now, a year later, the future of the Charlotte location is in doubt, the QCity Metro reported on December 14.

In an exclusive interview with QCity Metro, co-owner Mike Holt said the 255 Clanton Road business is struggling financially and looking for investors to prevent its closure at the end of the year.

“I desperately don’t want to close, but it’s been a drain on the entire company,“ he said.

Out of the nearly 10,000 craft brewers in the United States, fewer than 1% are Black-owned, according to ProBrewer.

Weathered Souls would be the second Black-owned brewery in Charlotte to close in the last five years after Three Spirits closed its doors in 2019.

Holt and Marcus Baskerville opened Weathered Souls in San Antonio, Texas, in 2016. It quickly grew in popularity and has since earned accolades, including “The Best Craft Brewery in the Country” by Hop Culture Magazine.

The duo’s decision to franchise in Charlotte was met with anticipation, primarily due to Baskerville’s national reputation for his work in diversity and inclusion, most notably his Black is Beautiful initiative, an effort launched in the summer of 2020 that raised more than $2 million for organizations that support equity and inclusion.

Though the business had early success, inflation, higher costs and wavering support have led to its recent financial struggles, Holt said.

Holts credits the absence of management to the Charlotte location’s struggles.

‘Neither [Baskerville] he nor I have been active enough to make it where it should be,” he said.

Baskerville has reduced his traveling commitments to focus more on the Charlotte location, but his efforts have led to little success.

The label of being a Black-owned business may have also deterred a diverse group of customers, Holt said.

“We didn’t build that business just to target Black consumers, but all consumers,” he said. “I’m sure we didn’t communicate that well at all.”

Holt said he is adamant about finding Black investors to maintain the business’s status as a majority Black-owned entity.

There have been talks through the year, but none of the negotiations have panned out, Holt said.

His pitch to investors has been the location; it is located in Charlotte’s Lower South End (LOSO) area, surrounded by a growing number of residential properties.

Clarence Boston, the owner of Hippin’ Hops Brewery, said he empathizes with Weathered Souls and understands the difficulty of marketing as a Black-owned brewery.

“A lot of people get the perception that that is the only clientele you serve,” he said.

Boston launched his initial franchise in Atlanta with plans to expand to Charlotte early next year.

Black beer drinkers are less frequent than other races, Boston said. Success starts with marketing to all demographics, he said.

“We want more Black people to drink beer, but you need diverse customers to survive all year round.”

If the Charlotte brewery closes, Holt said the ownership team plans to focus on the San Antonio location.

As of now, there are no plans for expansion in the Charlotte area again, he said.

“What the future holds beyond that, I don’t know,” he said.

14 December, 2023