Urban South Brewery’s growth over the past decade has not been driven solely by new markets, new brands or production investments. According to founders Jacob Landry and Kyle Huling, one of the New Orleans company’s biggest competitive advantages has been building a management structure that empowers experienced employees to make decisions, solve problems and take ownership of the brewery’s success.
For many brewery owners, the instinct to remain involved in every operational decision can become a bottleneck as a company grows. Huling said Urban South has intentionally taken the opposite approach by trusting department leaders to lead.
“A big part of our success is the team and the culture that I think we initially established, but that they’re carrying right now, passed along to the rest of their team,” Huling said in the cover story interview with BREWER. “Our staff cares so much about our product, cares so much about our vision and accomplishing our goals.”
That culture becomes especially valuable when challenges inevitably arise. Rather than viewing changes in production schedules or new product launches as obstacles, Huling said his leadership team approaches them with a problem-solving mindset.
“Alex Flores, our director of brewing operations, has been with us for eight years,” Huling said. “Anytime we come to him with a change in the schedule, anytime we come to him with an idea for a new brand, it’s always met with a can-do, ‘We’re going to figure this out,’ not a struggle with how we’re going to accomplish this because I know we’re going to do it.”
He sees the same mentality throughout the brewery’s leadership team.
“Rob (Edmiston), our director of packaging operations, is the same way,” Huling said. “Just great attitudes, and they really just want to get the job done.”
That confidence did not happen by accident. It was built through years of allowing employees to tackle increasingly complex projects instead of relying on outside expertise for every challenge.
“We’ve got a gritty team, and it takes that, I think, both in the industry and in New Orleans,” Landry said. “You have to be resilient.”
That resilience was tested during a major packaging expansion completed this year. Instead of hiring outside contractors, Urban South sourced equipment from brewery auctions and relied on its own staff to install the entire system.
“We did a big packaging line expansion this year that we 100% did ourselves,” Landry said. “We installed every piece of equipment together from brewery auctions. Our team has learned how each of these machines works, how to get them working if they’re not working.”
The approach required more time and effort, but Landry believes it created something more valuable than simply reducing installation costs. Employees gained technical knowledge while developing a stronger connection to the company’s long-term success.
“We’re definitely a do-it-yourself kind of place,” Landry said. “I think that builds just a lot of investment from our employees into the company and just attachment to the company.”
That investment has translated into retention in an industry where turnover can create operational and cultural challenges. While the brewery started with a small staff, many early employees remain with the company.
“We’re 10 years in, and we’ve got a number of eight-year employees,” Landry said. “I think our retention is great, and there’s not much turnover.”
For Huling, keeping talented people starts with something many founders struggle to do: letting go.
“I think the fact that he (Jacob) and I are not the brewers … we weren’t the founding brewers,” Huling said. “We hire people to do a job, and we let them do it.”
Rather than dictating every purchasing decision or operational change, the founders expect department leaders to identify needs and justify investments. When those recommendations support better beer or stronger business performance, they typically move forward.
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“We give them the tools necessary to do their job,” Huling said. “They come to us, as long as it makes sense with a good ROI or it’s going to help produce better beer, nine times out of 10 we’re going to agree with them and build it into our budget for the future.”
For owners looking to scale beyond a founder-led operation, that philosophy represents a meaningful shift in management. Instead of trying to become experts in every department, Urban South’s founders focus on setting direction while trusting specialists to execute.
“Just let the experts do their job,” Huling said. “We give them a vision, something that we want, and go get it.”
With tight labor markets and pressure to operate more efficiently, Urban South’s experience suggests that long-term success depends as much on building capable leaders as it does on building quality beer.
Empowering employees with responsibility, investing in their expertise and giving them ownership over results can create a culture where people choose to stay, and where founders are no longer required to make every decision themselves.
