Leaders of San Diego’s Green Flash Brewing Co. are not commenting on published reports that the craft beer maker has laid off as many as 25 employees.
“We do not make statements about specific personnel changes,” said co-founder and CEO Mike Hinkley, in an email sent Jan. 17 by the company to San Diego Business Journal. “Green Flash is not reducing the number of employees. In fact, we will continue to increase the number of employees.”
Citing comments from unnamed company employees, the Los Angeles-based craft-beer news website TheFullPint.com reported Jan. 11 that Miramar-headquartered Green Flash has laid off approximately 25 employees in its accounting, marketing, events and brewing operations departments.
San Diego’s West Coaster, another industry news publication, reported on Jan. 16 that “numerous current employees of Green Flash,” speaking on condition of anonymity, told the publication that there have been layoffs at the nearly 15-year-old company. West Coaster did not report a specific number of workers.
Green Flash Brewing recently opened East Coast production facilities in Virginia Beach, Va. While company officials are not elaborating, it is possible that its job shifts are related to recalibrations of its workforce in connection with the Eastern expansion.
Such a recalibration was recently cited by Escondido’s Stone Brewing Co., when it announced the layoffs of approximately 60 local workers. Stone Brewing, the region’s largest craft brewer and 10th-largest nationwide, has recently opened new production facilities in Berlin, Germany and Richmond, Va.
Green Flash Brewing, the local region’s third-largest craft brewer and 41st largest in the U.S. by production volume, most recently reported that it employed a total of approximately 250 people.
