If there’s one thing you probably know about Voodoo Brewery, it’s that we’re not the type of craft beer franchise that is afraid to stand up for what’s right. We’re all about justice in all its beautiful forms, and we do what we can to spread good vibes in our brewery franchise locations, as well as throughout the community of craft beer drinkers, with our mind-blowingly delicious brews and a laid-back vibe that welcomes people from all walks of life with open arms. In fact, if there’s one thing we love more than beer, it’s the amazing people who come into our brewpubs from far and wide to share it with us! 

So when we heard about the Black Is Beautiful initiative to help end racial injustice once and for all through a shared love of people and great beer, you’d better believe we wanted in. Our craft beer franchise is but one component of an entire network of beer retailers raising awareness about the injustices people of color face every day through the shared love language of beer. 

The Black is Beautiful initiative is a collaborative effort amongst the brewing community and its customers, with a mission to bridge the gap that’s been around for ages and provide a platform to show that the brewing community is an inclusive place for everyone of any color. We’re proud to be part of this initiative and are committed to doing our part to end systemic racism once and for all by participating in this collaboration.

Brewed by Weathered Souls Brewing Company, an independent San Antonio, Texas-based craft brewery, Black Is Beautiful is a stout recipe created by African-American head brewer and brewery co-owner Marcus Baskerville. Brewers who participated in the initiative, including Voodoo Brewery’s Master Brewer Curt Rachocki, were invited to place their own spin on the Black Is Beautiful stout base, creating a unique product that featured each brewery’s personal flair. 

“With the current tensions that are rising, we thought that it was of grave importance to start the Black Is Beautiful initiative,” states Baskerville in an open letter to craft beer enthusiasts on the Black Is Beautiful website. “We took a stout recipe and decided to call on our peers in the brewing industry to collaborate in unison for equality and inclusion amongst people of color.” 

Our craft beer franchise, along with other participating brewers across America, donated 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of Black Is Beautiful beer to local foundations of their choice that support police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged by the system. Voodoo Brewery donated the proceeds from our sales of Black Is Beautiful to ACLU Pennsylvania and the Black Business Relief Fund of Pittsburgh, which was started by Cocoapreneur to alleviate the financial burden for Black-owned Pittsburgh businesses that sustained damage in the wake of the George Floyd protests. 

“America unfortunately has a history of marginalizing people who aren’t white and so obviously there’s a great awakening going on right now,” stated Andy Hoover, ACLU Pennsylvania’s Director of Communications, adding, “People are challenging systemic racism and so the fact that brewery recognized that we are doing that work and that we’re doing it effectively, we really appreciate that,” 

Apart from wanting to help the brewing community take a stand for social justice, our craft beer franchise wanted to collaborate with Black Is Beautiful as a way to help educate fellow brewery fans and beer enthusiasts about systemic racism and learn more about what they can do to show their support. 

“Right now I know in the brewing industry in particular, it’s not particularly a diverse group, and I think it’s a great starting point to educate and increase awareness,” Voodoo Brewery CEO Matteo Rachocki told reporter Brianna Andrews in a TV interview with Erie News Now. “It’s super important to us to be involved in things like this- it’s part of what giving back as a business owner is.”

Voodoo Brewery was one of 1,037 breweries across all 50 U.S. states and in 20 countries that participated in the Black Is Beautiful initiative. We’re happy to say that Black Is Beautiful beer was a huge hit and is now completely sold out. We’re proud to have participated in this amazing project and hope that the contributions we were able to make thanks to our kickass fans can help make a difference in the fight against racial injustice and police brutality.

We always say that one of the best things about our craft beer franchise is having the chance to give back to the community, and we’re stoked that we were able to do it through our first love- BEER. With the support of our Franchise Owners, our fans, and the communities we’re lucky enough to be part of, Voodoo Brewery will always be on the lookout for fun new ways to make a difference in our corner of the world. 

Interested in becoming One Of Us? Let’s talk. Visit our franchise website to learn more.

​

OK, we’re just going to come right out and say what we’re all thinking- is now REALLY a good time to open a brewery franchise? After all, Voodoo Brewery’s business model is centered around an eclectic, quirky brewpub filled with local craft beer enthusiasts and casual beer drinkers gathering together to tip a few and have some laughs…you know, basically everything we have not been able to do since COVID-19 first started wreaking havoc back in March. 

If you’ve been feeling cooped up lately and are suffering from serious cabin fever during these past few months, you are definitely not alone. People like you who crave a fun experience that doesn’t involve your living room or a Zoom call will be clamoring to get out of their houses and hit their favorite bar as soon as the virus is behind us. Not only that but second-generation real estate, which we prefer to source for our new locations, is getting easier and cheaper to lease than it’s been in years!

 These new developments, along with a few very promising statistics about the future of franchising in general that we’re going to share with you, give us reason to believe that when it comes to investing in a Voodoo Brewery franchise now, it’s all upside. Better put on those shades, future Voodoo Brewery Franchise Owners, because your future is looking BRIGHT!

The Franchise Industry Is Blowing Up!

Believe it or not, you’re not the only person considering investing in a brewery franchise right now. Pretty far from it, in fact- according to FranchiseInsights.com, investment inquiries to franchisors in all industries are up 16.2% in the first half of June from where they were in May.  Additionally, the number of investor inquiries into food and restaurant franchise concepts increased by 9.4% from April to May. 

Why? Here’s the thing- whether it feels like it or not, our entire situation right now is temporary. In a survey of aspiring Franchise Owners across multiple industries way back at the beginning of this whole mess, over 55% of them agreed or strongly agreed that “now is a good time” to start a business. 48% of the survey respondents expected to start a business within the next three months, with another 16% looking to open a franchise location within four to six months.

In other words, the amount of time it takes to get a franchise location off the ground made future Franchise Owners optimistic that COVID-19 wouldn’t thwart their goals of entrepreneurship. 

Given the fact that an average ramp-up time for a new Voodoo Brewery franchise hovers around 9 months, give or take, that means that a Franchise Owner who signed an agreement with Voodoo Brewery today wouldn’t be seeing their Grand Opening take place until, say, March 2021. Seeing as how the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, testified in a June 23 hearing that he feels “cautiously optimistic” that a vaccine will be available by as soon as the end of this year, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched to believe that by next March, this nasty pandemic may very well be behind us all, and the only thing fans of our brewery franchise will be in danger of spreading to one another is good vibes!

The second half of 2020 doesn’t have to suck- invest in a Voodoo Brewery franchise!

We’re going to address the giant, coronavirus-shaped elephant in the room here and acknowledge that numerous local businesses, especially retail stores and restaurants, have been forced to shut their doors, in some cases permanently, since the COVID-19 crisis began in March. As local business owners ourselves, this breaks our hearts. However, there is a serious silver lining here for would-be Voodoo Brewery Franchise Owners- this means a sudden surge in the amount of prime real estate available to new, up-and-coming businesses. In other words, a new Franchise Owner could make some tasty lemonade out of this big-ass bag of lemons we call 2020!

In other “pandemic upside” news, the U.S. Treasury has slashed interest rates, meaning that it’s also a lot more affordable to lease or purchase commercial real estate than it’s been in an entire decade. That means that an amazing potential location in a highly sought-after market may be going for a lot less than it was at the beginning of this year. Along those same lines, qualifying for small business funding just got easier thanks to special SBA loan programs and small business-owner protections under the CARES Act. All in all, if you have long considered investing in a brewery franchise (or you just got unceremoniously dumped by their long-term corporate gig and are looking to change up your future with a fun new career), you could look back on 2020 as the year you finally took control of your financial destiny by taking the steps to open a Voodoo Brewery franchise, rather than seriously just the worst year in recent human history.

Additionally, owning a Voodoo Brewery franchise means that you are backed by a level of corporate support that most independent brewpub owners couldn’t even dream of- instead of having to take on the considerable risk that comes with opening a bar or restaurant, having to deal with the day-to-day hassles of coming up with exciting menu items, communicating with your distributors, planning promotions, coming up with effective advertising and marketing strategies, and- oh yeah!- brewing your own beer to serve on tap, you’ve got the entire Voodoo Brewery tribe to handle the heavy lifting. All of our Franchise Owners are backed by our proven business model that is carried out by an experienced team of experts, leaving them not much more to do than be the guy or gal behind the bar, chatting with customers and pouring some of the best damn beer the world’s ever tasted. 

It’s gonna take more than a global pandemic to stop the Voodoo Brewery franchise!

Sooner or later, we’ll be welcoming droves of fans back into all of our existing Voodoo Brewery locations, not to mention opening the doors to a few shiny new locations of our craft brewery franchise in cities nationwide. We’ve already gotten our groove back over at the Compound, our 30,000- square foot taproom in Meadville, PA where all the brewing magic happens. We recently re-opened our outdoor space to safely welcome our fans back with enough widely-spaced seating areas to accommodate 35 socially-distanced dining parties in a laid-back beer garden-type setting, and even welcomed a live band, Sunday at the Station, to play for us last Saturday night!

Our flagship Voodoo Brewery location on Arch Street in Meadville was approved to use a portion of the Mill Run parking lot space for safe outdoor dining, so we’ll be reopening there very soon. In the meantime, PA and D.C. residents can now enjoy Voodoo Brewery beer delivered directly to their homes– it just doesn’t get much better than that!

And- we don’t know, seems like something we should mention- our newest Voodoo Brewery franchise location in Cleveland Heights, OH reopened June 25 for dine-in and carryout, after months of being open for to-go beer and merch purchases only!

 We may have had to cancel our Good Vibes Beer Fest, but on the upside, we’re seeing awesome results from our Beer It Forward campaign and are psyched to treat our essential healthcare workers on the frontline to a few rounds when they can make it in. 

We look forward to the day we can put COVID-19 behind us and get back to sharing good times, good vibes, and, in our humble opinion, the world’s best beer, with fans who come from far and wide just to enjoy their favorite Voodoo brew on tap. And we want YOU in that picture! We’re building up steam and getting set to take this concept to cities all across the country, and we’re on the lookout for awesome individuals who have what it takes to become a member of the Voodoo tribe. 

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you were able to turn this absolute dumpster fire of a year into your year of entrepreneurial triumph? We want to help make that happen. Fill out the form below to receive more information about the Voodoo Brewery franchise opportunity, or visit our franchise website here.