FEATURED ARTICLE

IN CRAINS

SHANNON LONG, 28

 

Founder and CEO, Brew Export LLC

 

DUSTIN WALSH  

 

Shannon Long is a globe-trotting,

beer drinking, cosmopolitan woman

of industry. At 28, she works with

roughly 150 craft breweries in the

U.S. to navigate international

alcohol laws, supply chain channels,

label requirements and exchange

rates to get their product to events

or pubs or shelves in 30 countries.

Local clients include Griffin Claw,

 Ferndale Project, Eastern Market

Brewing Co. and others.

 

Long’s Brew Export LLC was born

out of an assignment in her

 international marketing capstone

class at Michigan State University

 in 2014. Long chose to study and

create a marketing plan for

exporting beer to Singapore. She

learned most U.S. craft brewers

lacked any meaningful resources to

 distribute regionally, let alone

across international borders. Her

import-export niche landed her a

$1,000 win at a local pitch

competition and Brew Export was

 willed into existence.

 

“My parents wanted me to go the

 corporate route right after college

and I think I did one job interview,”

Long said. “I was bit by that business

 startup bug and all these breweries

were getting interest from foreign

 markets but had no idea how to get

their beer there. I knew I could

connect the world through beer.”

At he same time she was launching

Brew Export, Long founded a

production company to co-produce,

write and star in a local television

show called Pure Brews America,

which aired on CBS and ran for 20

 episodes featuring 70 craft breweries

 across the U.S. The show, which was

 sponsored by Meijer, HopCat, the

 Michigan Brewers Guild and others,

won a Michigan Emmy award in 2017.

 

In 2018, Brew Export fermented into

a full-bodied firm, growing revenue

from $90,000 to $800,000.

 

Long founded a wholly-owned

subsidiary, Brew Export UK Ltd., in

 Scotland earlier this year and is

working on a hard seltzer advent

calendar — where for each of the

24 days, a new seltzer from around

 the U.S. is opened.

 

The company is still growing rapidly

with Long predicting revenue to top

$4 million in 2021. She’s looking to

hire as many as five new employees

this year to support that growth.

 

“I’d love to see Brew Export hubs

around the world,” Long said. “I’m

 building out a team to show beer is

one of the best representations of

the United States. So many of these

 brewers started as home brewers

and are family owned. They, like us,

have a real entrepreneurial spirit.

The beer is beautiful. The hops from

 Yakima Valley, the water from the

Great Lakes, the yeast from

California. It’s a beautiful product.”

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