Chasing Wholesale Growth

When Lost Worlds was preparing to open in 2020 there was a solid plan in place. Queue the music. We all know what happened during this historic time in our country when the pandemic posed threats to new businesses and ours was no different. We didn’t envision beer leaving our taproom for at least two years, but this liquid currency had to find its way into the world of wholesale much sooner than expected.

“The plan was to grow our Cornelius taproom, brewing in our production facility and serving directly to our guests. With the world events, we flipped the script and began to pursue wholesale business – selling our canned product to grocers, bottle shops, restaurants and bars,” says Dave Hamme, founder.

There was a small team when Lost Worlds opened for to-go sales only and Chase Craig was part of the skeleton crew that propelled the brewery from the beginning “For me it was a no-brainer that Chase was prepared and enthusiastic to be part of our wholesale efforts.”

Chase spent the first year and a half as an Adventure Guide (beertender) and shift lead.  During that time, he was the point person for off-site events and tastings at outlets like Total Wine and Lowe’s Foods.  “His love of beer, and talking about beer, is what makes Chase the ideal person for this role,” says Hamme.

“Meeting and greeting people, and simply put, talking beer is what I enjoy most about my role,” says Chase.  “It is amazing how small our big city is. In the short time that I’ve worked in Wholesale, I have gained so many friends who were friends of friends....and every derivation of that sentence would hold up.”

As the wholesale business grew, Lost Worlds added a delivery van to the arsenal, branded with Basecamp beers and marked with the words, “Find Your Adventure.”  It’s from the driver’s seat that Chase starts his day, a tumbler of coffee in hand, to deliver half-barrels and cases of our award-winning craft beer. And, most importantly, build relationships with our on-premise accounts that have come to rely on his knowledge to buy and sell our beer.

“I think my biggest accomplishment is our growth overall,” says Chase. “You can find our beers in bars and restaurants throughout Charlotte, grocery stores as far as Greensboro and Hickory and bottle shops as far as Blowing Rock.”

The demand for Lost Worlds beer is such that we welcomed Jake Suttles to our wholesale delivery team.

When you see our Adventure van rolling down the highway, be sure to wave, or even better, follow us. All roads lead to award-winning craft beer!