100,000-square-foot cidery to more than double cider production capacity
May 10, 2013
Vermont Hard Cider Co. LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ireland-based C&C Group plc, announced that construction is under way on its new, state-of-the-art cidery in Middlebury, Vt. The $30 million project is being built less than a mile from the current Middlebury facility, it says.
If you were to ask Bret Williams a year ago whether he would ever sell Vermont Hard Cider Co., the answer would have been, “No.” When the president and chief executive officer of the Middlebury, Vt.-based company originally purchased the Woodchuck hard cider brand and facility in 2003, it was not about developing a big company or brand; it was about saving jobs.
Vermont Hard Cider Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Bret Williams estimates that when he joined the Middlebury, Vt.-based company in 1996 as its first sales associate that the company shipped approximately 300,000 cases a year. In 2012, the company shipped 3 million cases of its Woodchuck Hard Cider brand, he says.
Staying on top of what is new in the beverage industry can sometimes make you forget about its history. When watching the Ken Burns three-part PBS special “Prohibition,” I was surprised to learn that some of the founding fathers of the United States enjoyed fermented cider.
Woodchuck Hard Cider launched a new line of craft cider. The Farmhouse Select Hard Cider Series is a small batch artisanal line packaged in 750-ml. corked bottles.
