AKRON, Ohio — An Akron brewery has announced that it will be closing its doors after undergoing substantial economic troubles.
R. Shea Brewing announced on Facebook that both locations in Akron will be permanently closing on Sunday, March 3.
R. Shea Brewing opened its doors in 2015 and became a staple to the community.
"This industry is the most challenging that it’s ever been. We have been fighting interest rate inflation, wage inflation, material inflation, steep declines in distribution and now declines in taproom sales. We can’t fight anymore. We are completely out of ammunition. There is nothing left. Our Canal Place expansion was the right place, wrong time. It was conceived on 2017-2018 economics where that equation has been totally turned upside-down due to the effects of Covid," said R. Shea Brewing in a Facebook post.
The decision came after R. Shea Brewing barely made payroll in January, but the financial challenges for the brewery began at the end of 2023.
"I ran some math and determined that if I was going to be able to give my employees at least two weeks' notice of closing, I better start that process now before we run out of money if these sales trends continue. The one thing I promised my employees back in November was that if we couldn't figure things out, is that I wouldn’t just ‘shut the doors’ without notice but would give them several weeks' heads-up. I love our employees, and I believe that we have the ‘dream team’ right now - but it’s not meant to be anymore, as much as it pains me to say."
3News' Austin Love previously visited R. Shea Brewing Company in November 2023 after they launched a GoFundMe due to facing a variety of challenges including tough times, including high-interest rates on their SBA Loan for the Canal Place location buildout, wage and material inflation to a decline in the overall national craft beer market, which translated into a huge drop in revenue along with a large rise in costs.
Despite having to close its doors, owner Ronald Shea is taking those donors.
"For those that contributed to the GoFundMe, thank you for believing in us and for the support. You are the ONLY reason why we are able to give our employees and patrons a 2-3 week heads-up on our closure. When our sales began to drop off a cliff in January, it was either and emergency use of these funds to cover payroll and figure out a proper wind-down, or shut the doors immediately with missed payroll. I’m a business owner who believes my employees deserve the respect to get at least two weeks' notice of our closure so that they can find other jobs and their paycheck is not interrupted. We employ over 50 people, many of them living paycheck to paycheck. They sincerely thank you for this. If you do not like the use of your funds, please contact us," said R. Shea Brewing in a Facebook post.