Border X Brewing LLC

BORDER X BREWING 2020 Update

follower @ Border X Brewing LLC

Published on Dec 29, 2020

Investor Familia,

I can't believe my last video update was June? My apologies, this Pandemic has forced us to close, open, open with 25% capacity, close again, open again but only outside, and now we are in "pick up mode" only. To say this has been the hardest time in my life is an understatement.

The good news.

  • Border X Brewing - Logan Ave, the original, has proven to be incredibly resilient during the pandemic. With our outside beer garden, and take over of front side walk and street, for the few months we were open, we brought in relatively solid revenue. We were doing better than break even and attracting new customers to our location. See update video below:
  • https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-12-17/fragile-recovery-in-cali-s-barrio-logan-video
  • - Mujeres Brew House has been a huge success! Back in June, we thought we would be out of the pandemic by end of year, and we found a turnkey brewery to take over for almost nothing, just assumed lease on brewery and rent. We've had tons of positive press and are proud to be on the forefront of creating spaces not just for Latinos, but for women in the craft brewing world too.
  • https://www.sandiegoville.com/2020/11/border-x-brewing-opens-sister-concept-mujeres-brew-house.html<... 
  • Mujeres Brew HouseBrew House Click here to watch Video!
  • Grants and Loans: We are surviving! It's been incredibly hard, but we've applied for and received PPP and EIDL loans to keep afloat. In addition, we received many smaller grants from San Diego City, San Diego County, LISC grant, LA County and many other smaller grants. In total, we've brought in over $300k to survive partial and complete shutdowns. With the new COVID Relief bill, we will receive a second PPP that will be larger than the first, we are hoping for somewhere near $160k. This money will be used to help us survive this complete shut down, which we expect to last thru January, perhaps February too.

    The Challenges

    • During the worst of times, including now, the only employees on payroll were my self, my wife, who plays multiple roles and a part time head brewer. We are exhausted. Each pivot, each shut down, each change required us to re-hire or layoff employees, retrain, reconfigure the ordering process, etc. We are surviving, and using this shutdown holiday time to rest and prepare for the next year.
    • Border X Bell has been through the most stringent shut downs than San Diego, due to higher infection rates in LA, specifically Southeast LA. From July to October, we were not even allowed to open a beer garden, it was only take away sales. In October, after much lobbying with the LA County Board of Supervisors, we were allowed to open outside dining. This lasted October and part of November. By December we were forced shut again. Prior to COVID, Bell had posted record sales in January and February, and in March we were nominated for James Beard Award. We were on a powerful expansion and growth trajectory, but now we are holding on for life.
    • Rebuilding after COVID will be a challenge. We have had to layoff employees, some for months. Many of them took other jobs or started new careers. In all of our breweries, we will focus on surviving January, February and then we hope to reopen our beer gardens by March. Time will tell, but when beer gardens open back up we will begin the rebuilding process, hiring back employees and retraining them in this post COVID world.

    Bottom line, your investment in Border X is protected despite one of the most difficult economic situations in the last 100 years. We prided ourselves on bringing people together over craft beer and culture, creating community in the process. We made award winning beer, we garnered praise and awards for our efforts and unique accomplishments. COVID hit us hardest because it made it impossible to gather people. This too will end and we will be here when we can do that again.

    Thank you for believing in us, thank you for investing in us!

    David Favela

    CEO Border X Brewing