E-Malt.com News article: USA: High Falls Brewing Co. will revive Narragansett Lager Beer brand

High Falls Brewing Co. will start producing beginning next month a once-powerful regional beer that is being reinvigorated in the New England area.

A group of Rhode Island investors, headed by beverage industry veteran Mark Hellendrung, purchased the rights to the Narragansett Lager Beer brand from Pabst Brewing Co. and signed up with the Rochester brewer as it tries to recapture New England.

Narragansett dominated that market a couple of generations ago when it was the chief sponsor of Boston Red Sox games.

The new contract will not immediately add employees at High Falls, said Chief Executive Officer Tom Hubbard. "If he is successful in driving the brand and has strong growth, his growth, along with other contracts we have, would clearly require us to add employment," Hubbard said. The brewery currently has about 300 production workers and about 375 employees overall.

Hubbard said he welcomes the opportunity "to produce a high-quality beer for Mark and his team. Consumers are saying they don't want to drink just the Big Three (Anheuser-Busch, SABMiller and Molson Coors)."

"Here's a guy who's really been successful in the past in the marketing and developing of beverages. With a lot of hard work and some decent investment, it's very possible that Narragansett could be revived."

Hellendrung, 37, was president of Nantucket Nectar. He also worked for Vermont craft brewer Magic Hat Brewing Co. Hellendrung said that at one time, Narragansett had 60 percent of the market in New England. "If we can get a sliver of that, it'll be pretty good,'' he said.

He plans to sell the beer in 12-ounce glass bottles and also in kegs. He intends to market the brand with a mix of retro and new advertising. Initially he'll market in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and most of Connecticut, excluding Fairfield County. He hopes to add Maine in the fall or next year.

Formerly based in Cranston, R.I., the Narragansett brewery fell on hard times and closed its doors in 1981. Pabst had been packaging the beer in recent years from the City Brewing Co. plant in La Crosse, Wis., and distributing it in 16-ounce cans in parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Hubbard said he believed High Falls was chosen because of the quality of its work and the favorable economics of shipping the beer from Rochester to New England instead of from Wisconsin.

Eric Shepard, the executive editor of Beer Marketer's Insights, a trade publication, said Narragansett faces an uphill battle. "I think there is an opportunity there," he said. "You have sort of the retro appeal of Pabst, but there isn't a whole lot of evidence outside of Pabst that you can bring back these very old brands and make it work. But who knows? There could be a vein of interest there."



27 July, 2005