How Oyster City Used Indoor Seating Restrictions to be a Sales Benefit

This is a part of a continuing series of Q&As with members of the brewing community from across the U.S.
Brewer Magazine will share business and personal insights from Brewmasters, Head Brewers, Brewing Managers, Sales Directors, QCQA Managers and others each weekend to help you get to know each other better in the industry and learn more to better develop your own brand.

Clayton Mathis, General Manager, Oyster City Brewing — Apalachicola, Florida
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BREWER
: How has your business strategy evolved to help grow and stay competitive?
MATHIS: ​We have offered curbside pickup, online ordering, online merchandise sales, and we have started distributing a larger variety of seasonal beers to stay competitive.

BREWER
: Who is your mentor in the industry and why? What have you learned from them?
MATHIS: Jamie Ray has been a great mentor for me. He originally was a consultant in the beginnings of Oyster City Brewing Company. He has been a resource of knowledge on brewing, sanitation, and everyday procedures. We were able to hire him full-time, and he is now our Brewmaster living in Lakeland and overseeing all production and packaging at Brew Hub.

BREWER
: What idea did you or your team come up with lately that has been a big benefit to how your brewery functions?
MATHIS: We have removed all indoor seating for the safety of our guests. This has allowed us to offer more merchandise for our guests. We are so limited on space, we could only offer a few items before. We have a great team who is constantly coming up with ideas to better our business.

BREWER
: If you had one business strategy that you could implement to better the brewing industry, what would it be?
MATHIS: Working together with politicians/lobbyists in order to make our jobs easier. The restrictions and requirements could be eased in order to make our everyday business practice easier and more profitable.

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