America’s Oldest Brewery is entering the Lone Star State.
Yuengling is making its first step in a westward expansion announced last fall as part of a joint venture between D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc., and Molson Coors Beverage Company.
“Texas is such a vibrant state with a great network of distributors. It will eventually be the No. 1 beer-volume state in the U.S., and to have a chance to sell Yuengling here is very exciting,” says Pat Pikunas, general manager of The Yuengling Company. Pikunas says he anticipates Yuengling’s beers hitting shelves in the fall.
The joint venture between the 192-year-old Yuengling and Molson Coors expands Yuengling’s presence westward to 25 states outside of its existing 22-state footprint, which is mostly along the East Coast and Southeast. The widely anticipated expansion is going to be “methodical,” says Pikunas, who was previously Yuengling’s vice president of strategic planning, as well as a sales manager with Miller Brewing Company.
“We’re basically starting a new company,” he says. That means hiring a team, appointing the distributor network, testing the brewing process to ensure consistency, and proving the beer can sell.
“We are focused on getting our business going in Texas before we move to further expansion but know we’re going to be making a lot of Yuengling fans happy,” Pikunas says.