Asheville-area breweries contribute $935M to economy in 2019

By Hannah Mackenzie

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Asheville-area breweries are generating big business for local and state economies, according to a new study published by Riverbird Research.

Riverbird Research, a division of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, revealed the total economic contribution of Asheville-metro breweries in 2019 was $935 million. That’s one-third of the state’s $1.7 billion total output for the brewery industry.

The study, released Wednesday, Sept. 29, compiled statistics from 2014-19 and does not account for any dips attributed to COVID-19. According to the pre-pandemic data, breweries also made a big impact on employment with 1,134 jobs being added over the five-year span.

Corey Atkins, with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, said the 357% increase meant that breweries are now the second largest manufacturing employer in Asheville. Atkins said the additional positions also created a ripple effect.

“For every job that’s created by one of our craft brewery industry partners here in this community, another induced job or indirect job is caused because of that,” Atkins said.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, brewery owners were forced to get innovative to stay afloat, Wicked Weed Brewery founder Walt Dickinson said.

“We’ve all moved to where we’re selling more packaged beer than draft beer, and that’s something that’s going to sustain.”

Dickinson said the changes he’s seen in the industry will pay off for years to come.

“We’re all going to be stronger,” Dickinson said. “It’s just really exciting to see Asheville firmly assert itself as the capital of beer.”

Currently, about 40 breweries operate within the Asheville-Buncombe area and at least half a dozen more are on the verge of opening, said Leah Rainis, executive director of the Asheville Brewers Alliance.

According to Rainis, North Carolina is home to about 340 breweries. With more than an eighth of those being in the Asheville-Buncombe metro, some might say the market is saturated, but Rainis disagreed.

“A rising tide raises all ships,” Rainis said. “And it brings with it abundant ancillary resources that we wouldn’t have access to otherwise.”

This is the second local study to be conducted on the economic impacts of breweries. The last time the numbers were compiled was in 2016.

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