{"id":21941,"date":"2019-04-04T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=21941"},"modified":"2019-04-04T07:22:29","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T14:22:29","slug":"craft-qa-part-2-josh-landan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2019\/04\/04\/craft-qa-part-2-josh-landan\/","title":{"rendered":"Craft Q&A (Part 2): Josh Landan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last December, Josh Landan<\/strong>, most famous locally for founding and subsequently selling Saint Archer Brewery<\/strong><\/a>, returned to the beer industry by establishing Harland Brewing<\/strong><\/a>. But he didn\u2019t stop there. He also opened a beverage distributor servicing San Diego County called Scout Distribution<\/strong><\/a>. Its warehouse and offices shares space with Harland in Scripps Ranch. Yesterday, we asked him about Harland. Today, he\u2019s dishing up information on Scout.<\/p>\n

What niche is Scout looking to fill in San Diego\u2019s already-crowded beer and beverage landscape?<\/strong><\/em>
\nI didn\u2019t come from beer. I\u2019m not a brewer and have no family or friends in the beer business. Growing up in Ventura, beer was Coors Light and Bud Light, and at best, you have a friend who works at a beer distributor warehouse. I didn\u2019t know anybody when I got into the beer business. When I started Saint Archer, we met with Stone Distributing Company and everything (Stone co-founder) Steve Wagner<\/strong> would tell me was like getting lessons at beer college. I didn\u2019t know anything, and if it hadn\u2019t been for that relationship, it would have been very hard in the beginning for me to understand what was going on. Stone gave me a valuable intro to how distribution works, which is not common for a beer distributor. It was more personable and they gave me a lot of access; a lot more there than your traditional Bud or MillerCoors house.\u00a0 Later, I was introduced to distributorships all over the country. Those don\u2019t feel like partnerships. They\u2019re just taking your beer places. They\u2019re not getting into sales strategy and how to build your brand in the marketplace, or asking you how your capital raises are going. I wondered, \u2018How come nobody asks that or gives a shit?\u2019 That\u2019s where Scout was born from. We can look the guys at JuneShine<\/strong> in the eye and be like, \u2018I\u2019ve been you, I know exactly what it\u2019s like to be you and not know how to raise money or what to do with your brand or what pricing structure to use.\u2019 I think that\u2019s what\u2019s been refreshing for the brands Scout represents. They\u2019re left thinking, \u2018These dudes really get us and understand.\u2019 It\u2019s been pretty special helping people because we do know what it\u2019s like to start up, ramp up, and try to keep up with the different phases of a company\u2019s growth. It\u2019s not just, \u2018Let me take your beer downtown to the Pendry.\u2019 It\u2019s, \u2018Let me tell you how to get it there and save you money doing so.\u2019 It\u2019s crazy how many breweries just don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Who are Scout\u2019s current clients and are you looking to add more brands?<\/strong><\/em>
\nWe currently distribute beer for 32 North Brewing, Abnormal Beer Co., Harland Brewing, Ogopogo Brewing<\/strong>, and Topa Topa Brewing<\/strong>; cider for Bivouac Ciderworks<\/strong>; wine for Claxton Cellars<\/strong>; and hard kombucha for JuneShine<\/strong>. Other brands have reached out \u2014 some would be a surprise to people \u2014 and we get hit up multiple times a week from alcohol businesses all over the U.S. Having the film we produced for JuneShine turned some heads. That\u2019s not common for a distributor. But for now, we\u2019re standing pat with who we have.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What do you look for when taking on distribution partners?<\/strong>
\nThe product is always number one. You could have the best brand on the planet with $100 million to spend, but if your beer sucks, it doesn\u2019t matter. We also like getting a feel for the people. We have met with some folks where, personally, it wasn\u2019t the right fit. That\u2019s important. You\u2019re entering into a marriage and getting divorced is really expensive, so I think you really need to like each other. That\u2019s been a big thing for us. We\u2019re really building brands with these people. You get to a point where self-distributing is gnarly. You spend a lot, wake up and wonder if you\u2019re still a brewery or producer or if you\u2019ve turned into a distribution business. You have to think of scaling. You don\u2019t know about getting into chains and who to talk to. If you\u2019re just getting by with your brewery, how are you going to finance the distribution arm of your business? It\u2019s very sensitive; someone\u2019s handing over their kid. We\u2019re trusting our clients to grow this business with us, but also for us because we won\u2019t be on the street selling together.<\/p>\n

What are Scout\u2019s current resources?<\/strong>
\nScout is headquartered along with Harland Brewing in Scripps Ranch. Scout occupies 17,000 square feet of a 37,000-square-foot facility. We were originally going to have both businesses split a 17,000-square-foot building, but it\u2019s a good thing we didn\u2019t. It wouldn\u2019t have worked out. We originally built a 3,000-square-foot cold box for our distributed brands, but things have gone so well that we\u2019re out of space and constructing a 1,000-square-foot cold box. Similarly, we started out with two delivery trucks and are already up to four. Scout is already servicing over 800 San Diego County accounts after four months. It speaks to our veteran squad and the relationships they have forged over the years. That\u2019s what really sells beer. You have to have people that have been local San Diegans for 15 years, people that bleed SD craft beer through and through. If you don\u2019t, it\u2019s really tough. And if you can convince people like that to jump into the deep end with you, you\u2019re stoked!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last December, Josh Landan, most famous locally for founding and subsequently selling Saint Archer Brewery, returned to the beer industry by establishing Harland Brewing. But he didn\u2019t stop there. He also opened a beverage distributor servicing San Diego County called Scout Distribution. Its warehouse and offices shares space with Harland in Scripps Ranch. Yesterday, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4905,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-craft-qa","8":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","9":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/JL_1.jpg?fit=740%2C493&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"Founder of Harland Brewing also launches Scout Distribution","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-5HT","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}