Despite steady sales prior to the pandemic, two local breweries in the Conejo Valley have become recent casualties of COVID-19, forced to close their doors after continued financial uncertainty and slowed business.
“My dear Thread Heads,” Tim Kazules, owner of Five Threads Brewing Co. in Westlake Village, wrote in a goodbye letter to his customers on his website before he closed on Jan. 30. “It is with heavy heart that I announce that after six hard fought years, Five Threads Brewery is closing permanently. Unfortunately we have not been able to scale up our sales fast enough to cover rising expenses and we find ourselves at the end of our funds.”
Kazules had spent the duration of the pandemic thinking of creative ways to keep the doors to his small brewery open – he rented a food truck and hired a chef, extended hours, hosted happy hours and karaoke nights and Taco Tuesday events, invested in social media marketing and money mailer inserts, but “nothing, nothing was catching,” he said.
Read the full story in the Feb. 14 issue of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.