Konnichiwa Japan!

August 24, 2017

by Founder and Managing Director, James Yeomans.

In 2013 when I started this crazy adventure never did I think I’d be sat here writing about of first pallets of beer heading out to the far east.

Earlier this year, after the crowdfunding success, we took a look at our new investor base and were stoked to see people from Australia, Asia, Sweden and the USA all backing Hop Stuff Brewery to be the next big thing in London. We took this vote of confidence and ran with it, reaching out to partners across the world to start a global expansion. Back in April I wrote a piece on Linkedin (because I’m so craft beer!) about world domination and today, our first giant leap into non-EU export has begun!

Japan has always been a country that has fascinated me, and I’ve always been desperate to visit. So when we began talking to a distribution partner in Japan I thought, ‘WIN! I can now justify a trip to Japan to work with the Hop Stuff Brewery team!’ OK, so I might be getting a little ahead of myself. We’re not going to start opening an office in every country we export to, but the fire was lit for global reach. Japan has sat on a pedestal for us along with countries like the US, Canada and Australia; countries we have to export to in order to call ourselves a truly international brewery!  

The Japanese beer scene is thriving, as it is in a lot of Asian countries as people move away from rice beers and the old guard to start looking at new wave craft beer for their next pint. Our Japanese distributor works closely with the likes of Brewdog, Thornbridge, Magic Rock and several of the UK market leaders for craft beer. Now Hop Stuff Brewery is one of them.

Today we shipped a few pallets of Renegade IPA, Four Hour Session, APA and Unfiltered Pilsner (in all formats) in a cold chain container to ensure that the beer arrives as fresh and high quality as possible. With international expansion comes huge challenges and we’re fortunate to have an exceptional team both here, and with our new partner’s Tokyo base, to make sure our beer travels safely, chilled and sleeping soundly.

Hop Stuff Brewery is growing at over 100% a year, and our export plans form the cornerstone of the 2018-19 growth plans. We’re in advanced talks with US, Australian and Canadian distribution partners, with whom we hope to grow relationships so that Hop Stuff will reach all corners of the globe in the next year.

Exciting times ahead of Hop Stuff International. Maybe one day I’ll get that Japanese office after all.

https://www.hopstuffbrewery.com/blog/