E-Malt.com News article: USA, HI: Kona Brewing Co’s beer shipments increase by 27.3% in 2012

Kona Brewing Co.’s shipments totalled 220,000 barrels of beer in 2012, an increase of 27.3 percent from the 172,800 barrels that were shipped in 2011, the Hawaii-based company announced on March, 4.

Based in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, Kona Brewing, which is part of the Craft Brew Alliance, also said its shipments within the Hawaii market grew by 18 percent last year.

“Strength in the home market is key for our growth in other markets,” Kona Brewing Co. President Mattson Davis said. “The support of our community where we created and brewed our first beer here in Kona 18 years ago is a springboard to our success on the Mainland because it’s what makes us authentically Hawaiian, and craft beer consumers know this.”

The company attributed some of the growth to increased sales of its flagship Longboard Island Lager beer, which it began selling in cans last year, as well as the rollout of its Big Wave Golden Ale to the Mainland last summer.


06 March, 2013