John I. Haas, Inc., a leading supplier of hops and hop products, today announced it has made a strategic investment in Yakima Valley Hops, a leader in online direct-to-customer hop supply for brewers. The new strategic partnership provides Haas access to a proven online distribution channel to a growing base of home brewers and small craft brewers, while Yakima Valley Hops gains broad access to Haas’ world-renowned portfolio of innovative hops and hop products, including Citra®, Mosaic®, Galaxy™, BRU-1™, Sabro™ and INCOGNITO®.
Yakima Valley Hops is co-owned by Jeff Perkins and John Snyder of Yakima, Washington.
“We love what Jeff, John and their entire team have built at Yakima Valley Hops. We love their entrepreneurship, their attention to customer satisfaction and the passion they demonstrate for hops every day,” said Alex Barth, CEO of John I. Haas. “With this strategic investment, we want Yakima Valley Hops to have the financial resources and access to our portfolio of hops and hop products in order to accelerate their business growth. For Haas, this partnership instantly provides brand and product awareness of the Barth Haas Group to the home brewing market as well as an opportunity to participate in the online distribution channel to small craft brewers. It will also allow Haas to remain very focused on serving our current core customers and distribution partners.”
Jeff and John started as avid home brewers. They had difficulty sourcing hops and they realized this was an issue for other home brewers and many small craft brewers as well. In 2012, they started Yakima Valley Hops in a garage selling on the internet. Today, Yakima Valley Hops sells online to over 40,000 home brewers and thousands of small craft breweries mainly in the United States. Through its direct to home brewers online business, YakimaValleyHops.com, and its craft brewer focused online segment, SpotHops.com, Yakima Valley Hops has emerged as an industry leader in e-commerce, providing convenient access to the most sought after hops and hop products online and delivered by express mail within days of the order.
“With this new strategic investment from, and partnership with, John I. Haas, we have an amazing opportunity to do more of what we love – bringing the best, most coveted hops and hop products from around the world to great home brewers and craft brewers conveniently and yet with a small company personal touch,” said Jeff Perkins, Co-Owner of Yakima Valley Hops.
“The best thing about this new relationship with John I. Haas is that they respect the customer-focused company culture we have here at Yakima Valley Hops. They admired our ability to engage our customers via blogs, videos, emails and of course a local walk-in retail store. They’ve encouraged us to think bigger, act faster, and reach more customers,” said John Snyder, Co-Owner of Yakima Valley Hops.
The transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
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