{"id":23722,"date":"2025-02-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/al-coors-to-take-over-distribution-for-ska-brewing\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:40:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:40:50","slug":"al-coors-to-take-over-distribution-for-ska-brewing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/al-coors-to-take-over-distribution-for-ska-brewing\/","title":{"rendered":"A&L Coors to take over distribution for Ska Brewing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dave
Dave Thibodeau, Ska Brewing Co.\u2019s president and cofounder, said rumors the brewery is being sold to A&L Coors are not true. Coors is taking over distribution for Ska, and Ska co-owners have had many conversations over the years about what it would mean for the brewery if it were sold. But none of those conversations have went anywhere so far, he said. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

No, Ska Brewing Co. in Durango is not being sold to A&L Coors, Dave Thibodeau, Ska president and co-owner, said on Friday. Coors is, however, taking on distribution of Ska beer starting next week.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau said the rumor Ska is being sold to Coors has been perpetuated for months, and it\u2019s \u201cdriving me crazy.\u201d But there is a reason he hasn\u2019t addressed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been quite a few times over the past few years that we have talked to people about some kind of change in ownership or partnership or sale or whatever,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd unfortunately, what comes along with that is I have to sign a nondisclosure agreement, and I\u2019m under one right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Coors will distribute Ska\u2019s beer to Durango bars and restaurants, which are its primary market in addition to taphouses in Telluride. Ska\u2019s in-house distributors will continue delivering beer to all 11 or so liquor stores in the city and any Durango bars and restaurants that carry Ska beer. The staff will just be driving different vehicles.<\/p>\n

He added having Coors distribute makes sense because it has more resources than Ska. Customers will notice a new truck pull up and a new invoice from Coors when the product is delivered, but that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

\"Ska
Ska Brewing Co. President Dave Thibodeau and Marketing Director Kristen Muraro dump Ska beers, including the brewery\u2019s \u201cThe Hazy IPA,\u201d into a tub at a party at the Smiley Building in September 2019. The beer will be released on Tuesday. (Courtesy of RadCraft)<\/span>Courtesy of Ska Brewing Co.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI can say with 100% certainty that Coors is not buying the brewery and that right now, it\u2019s not sold, and that\u2019s about all I\u2019m allowed to say,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau said he is not necessarily interested in selling Ska, but he and co-owners Bill Graham and Matt Vincent have never turned down a conversation about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last decade, there\u2019s been a lot of (craft beer) mergers and a lot of breweries working together to get creative. Some selling, some just merging; some switching production around,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Ska\u2019s owners have had many conversations about the future of Ska and what the smartest moves for it would be. Those conversations have never led anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, Matt and Bill and I are still the sole owners of ska,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ska is important to the community, he said, and he and his co-owners do the best to support the community \u2013 Durango, La Plata County and Southwest Colorado \u2013 that has always supported it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to continue doing that. We love everything about having a business in Durango,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 I don\u2019t want to do anything that jeopardizes what Ska has always done and our position within the community, because it\u2019s just far too important.\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Right now, (we) are still the sole owners of Ska,\u2019 Dave Thibodeau says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[924,431,582,2490,950,28,2608],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alcohol","tag-business-general","tag-craft-beer","tag-distiller-and-brewer","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-ska-brewing-co"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78233,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23722\/revisions\/78233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23722"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}