The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Official: Conn. breweries are ‘bouncing back’ from pandemic
BRANFORD — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and administrators with the Small Business Administration visited Stony Creek Brewery on Monday to highlight legislation and funds that helped keep Connecticut’s small businesses open during the pandemic.
Ed Crowley, the owner of Stony Creek Brewery, said his business was shuttered for a few months when the pandemic began and slowly began to reopen under the governor’s orders but lost a lot of revenue.
When the business reopened, it pivoted to becoming a restaurant, something Crowley said was unique for someone that had been in the beer industry for 46 years.
“Every other business struggled during this COVID two-year period and we suffered along with them,” Crowley said. “Many of them are good friends of ours that have survived. Unfortunately, many of those did not survive and we hope that they get back into some type of brewing capacity.”
Crowley said the business received a 504 loan, money from the Paycheck Protection Program and most recently, the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the SBA.
“Without these three products, the 504, the PPP and the EIDL loan, it would have been very, very difficult for a brewery this size,” to survive, he said, even for a familyrun business that’s wellrun with the volume his company produces.
The business applied for the EIDL loan back in October 2021, and as recently as six weeks ago Crowley said he felt he was getting nowhere as far as the application process. Then he made a few phone calls and connected with SBA Connecticut District Director Catherine Marx, who he called “a superhero.”
“It’s been a difficult two years and unimaginable business plans shutting down the hospitality industry, shutting down the restaurants and yet organizations like the Stony Creek not only survived, but they are going into new direction, and they’re supporting their communities,” Marx said.
Crowley said making payroll every two weeks was a grind and if it wasn’t for Marx and Mike Vlacich, the regional administrator for the SBA, the business would not be where it is today.
“As I told all of our team members, we wouldn’t be here today, we wouldn’t be looking to add about 14 new full-time positions in brewing hospitality
side, getting ready for the summer months,” Crowley said.
Blumenthal said his role in the saga of helping the brewery receive the loan was to be a pain in the neck, which he said he does sometimes when government needs to respond more quickly and fully to the needs of constituents.
The senator praised the SBA for its work with PPP, EIDL and the restaurant revitalization program over the last two years, adding the federal government has poured trillions into the economy, with a lot of that money going toward small businesses.
“The reason is, small businesses are our economic backbone,” Blumenthal said. “They are literally the economic springboard to recovery because they are the major source of new jobs and they not only employ people, but they bring people together.”
Blumenthal said he hopes when the Senate goes back to work in a few weeks it will add $48 billion into the restaurant revitalization program to replenish the program and help restaurants and breweries that missed out on the first round of funding.
Vlacich said there are 355,000 small businesses
in Connecticut and that $14 billion came into the state in pandemic aid and grants. More benefits may become available to small businesses through the $6 trillion in infrastructure aid passed by the federal government, Vlacich said.
“In order to build that better America, we have to support our main streets and this is step one, getting companies like Stony Creek back on their feet and thinking about the future and growing your business. That’s why we’re here and we’re going to continue moving forward,” Vlacich said.
Crowley is remaining hush on how his business
is growing apart from the 14 new positions, but did hint at possibly expanding the business’ footprint.
“We’re currently in all of the New England states. We have never ventured into the great city of New York,” Crowley said. “That could be on the horizon. And if it is, we need bodies, great bodies that are going to help us sell Stony Creek beer out into the city, in the five boroughs.”
“And I am sworn to secrecy, but I can tell you the plans are very, very exciting,” Blumenthal chimed in.