Bissell Brothers Brewing plans to close its Three Rivers location in Milo at the end of the summer, its owners wrote in an open letter to their customers on the company’s website.

“This has been the hardest decision we’ve ever had to come to grips with as owners of Bissell Brothers,” the long and detailed letter from Noah, Peter and Hester Bissell says. The Bissells opened the brewery, taproom and restaurant in their rural Piscataquis County hometown in 2018. In January, its chef, Joe Robbins, was named a semifinalist for a James Beard Award.

“Our long-term goal was of course to eventually make Three Rivers a viable, self-sustaining arm of Bissell Brothers,” the brothers wrote. “Unfortunately, this hope has never come to fruition. With each investment and expansion of BB3R, always in pursuit of a sustainable future, the business itself became exponentially more costly to operate. Despite what always felt like our best efforts and likely has had the outward appearance of a thriving business, our Three Rivers location has always cost more to operate than it generated in income. While we were able to absorb this loss for the better part of the last decade, a variety of economic factors both internal and external to our business have regrettably made this impossible to continue.”

The brothers’ letter explains that like many craft breweries around the country, “our bottom line company-wide is now as tight as it has ever been,” noting that microbrewery closures last year nationwide were more than double the number of openings, a trend not expected to change any time soon.

“People are drinking less beer than they have in decades, as the craft beer landscape has transitioned quite rapidly from an era of limitless exuberance to a more somber phase of maturity and saturation,” they wrote.

The brothers said in recent weeks they examined ways to keep the Milo location open, but couldn’t find a path that didn’t involve “drastic pay cuts, hugely detrimental changes to our service model and level of quality we provide, and significant layoffs.” So they chose to keep the venue open for the remainder of the season to give their team time to transition to new work elsewhere.

“Rest assured, we will be doing everything in our collective power to help them land on their feet as gracefully as possible,” the letter says.

The Bissells said they will be “beyond ready” to sell or lease the building, “what’s in essence a turnkey brewery and restaurant.”

Copy the Story Link

« Previous

Americans’ pandemic savings are gone – and the economy is bracing for impact

Next »

Maine’s community colleges receive $75 million grant to expand short-term workforce training