Microbreweries and finance in the rural north of Sweden — a case study of funding and bootstrapping in the craft beer sector

Abstract

This paper explores the growth of the craft beer sector in a northern Swedish rural setting, with a particular focus on how small-scale brewers manage to fund their activities and ventures. It connects craft brewing with the concept of bootstrapping, a theoretical foundation into understanding alternative paths of funding business operations. This study has used qualitative measures in order to reach a deeper understanding of the research field. More specifically, a case study has been performed in the peripheral, northern Swedish region of Jämtland. It is a comprehensive case study, including interviews with all of the 14 craft brewers in the region, as well as observations of brewing sites. The study established that most of the brewers have funded their business activities with alternative funding and bootstrapping methods. Also, the brewers try to keep external financing to a minimum, but it is an inevitable necessity for most of them to use some type of external funding in the start-up process. Contributing to the findings is also the frequency whereby the brewers use the regions other brewers as a resource network, thus elevating the social bootstrapping dimension to a highly important survival technique.

Craft breweries and local place development – Perspectives from a Scandinavian context

“…Recent studies highlight the use of traditional methods in the production of commercial beer (Bråtå, 2017). Other studies point out logistics and transports as important for craft brewers (Sjölander-Lindqvist et al, 2019; Skoglund, 2019), alongside factors as producers working in networks, using alternative funding sources and having jobs on the side in order to keep their breweries in business. Jahrn et al (2017) have undertaken a qualitative study on cooperation and competition among young and small-scale breweries.…”

“…This transformation has come to change the brewing sector and in the last 30 years the number of breweries has increased sharply in Norway as well as in Sweden (Brønnøysundregistrene, 2020; Statistics Sweden, 2021a). Previous research argue that the craft beer movement opens up new platforms for local economic development, especially, in highly rural contexts (Sjölander-Lindqvist et al, 2019; Skoglund, 2019). However, different alcohol policies in the Nordic countries, where Norway and Sweden in particular are disadvantaged due to strict rules regarding distribution and high alcohol taxes, give an indication that opportunities for creating economically sustainable breweries are more limited for brewers in Norway and Sweden (c.f.…”

The Swedish alcohol monopoly: A bottleneck for microbrewers in Sweden?

“…Also, the brewers are often combinateurs, i.e., having another job on the side, they often fund their operations through different so-called bootstrapping methods, and they often work in networks in close cooperation with each other and other craft food businesses. (Sjölander-Lindqvist et al, 2019;Skoglund, 2019) This study attempts to continue adding to the Swedish, and Scandinavian, research on craft beer. More specifically, it approaches the field from a craft producer perspective, with a particular focus on policy, where the specific characteristics of Sweden make it a particularly interesting context to study.…”

Cluster governance of School-university clusters

“…There is probably an organizational life cycle fostering cluster membership. Young organizations have normally a weak resource base, making them prone to bootstrapping methods (Skoglund, 2019), of which one is cluster membership. When growing in size, they tend to have more of internal resources and to formalize, with less need of a cluster membership.…”