How Did Richmond Attract Stone Craft Brewery — the 10th largest in the country

How did Jane Ferrara help bring Stone Brewery to Richmond? The CEO of the city’s Economic Development office says “transformational change” was the key to landing the big brewery.

We are thrilled to interview Jane, our cover girl for the “May 2015 issue of Be Inkandescent magazine.”:

She’s going to tell us about how she brought to Richmond Stone Brewing Co., the 10th largest craft brewer in the US that generates $185 million in annual sales, and employs more than 1,000 people.

• Starting this year, Stone will begin to invest $74 million to construct a production brewery, packaging hall, destination restaurant, gardens, retail store and administrative offices in Richmond.
• Richmond was selected among more than 20 states that submitted proposals after Stone’s request for proposal was sent out in January 2014.
• Stone has been listed 10 times on the Inc. 500 | 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies,
• And it was called the “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine — twice.
• It is also the first American craft brewer to independently own and operate facilities in Berlin.

In this episode we learn:

1. Why did Stone choose Richmond?

2. What were the biggest challenges to bringing Stone home? And how did Jane differentiate Richmond from the other 20 cities that Stone was considering?

3. Who did she pull onto your team? And who did she know who to listen to?

4. What was the communities’ response?

5. What are some of your biggest lessons learned? And given the option, would she do it all again?

Listen to the podcast now!