Saturation: Too Many Breweries, Not Enough Drinkers

Leading up to Covid, the market was saturated. Every brewery was chasing the same customers. Pub landlords were overwhelmed with choice and could demand better and better terms. Shelf space is finite — a bottle shop can only stock so many pale ales. When there are dozens of local options, none of them sells in meaningful volume.

Consumer fatigue set in too. The "paradox of choice" is real. When every bar has twenty taps from twenty different breweries, drinkers don't explore — they default to what they know or they pick the cheapest option. The race to the bottom on pricing began, and once you're competing on price with razor-thin margins, you're in a fight nobody wins.