Barrio is the oldest craft brewery in Arizona, and now the first in the U.S. to transfer 100% of ownership to employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Program.
While other breweries across the country have established similar employee-owned models, none has given the entirety of the company to their employees from the moment the ESOP was effective.
Founded by Dennis and Tauna Arnold in 1991, Barrio started life as Gentle Ben’s Brewing Co. near the University of Arizona campus, and their flagship beer, Barrio Blonde, is the oldest continually brewed beer in the state’s history.
In 2006, a needed expansion moved the brewery’s production facilities and restaurant to a 22,000 square foot building in downtown Tucson that was originally constructed as a Quonset hut in 1947. In this facility, the brewery produces nearly 15,000 barrels each year in its state-of-the-art 30-barrel system.
“Barrio Brewing started as, and will continue to be, a family affair as our employees are family and have put their hearts and souls into making Barrio what it is today,” said Dennis Arnold, Barrio’s soon-to-be brewmaster emeritus. “Nearly 30 years after our humble beginnings, the decision on our exit strategy was easy for both of us, either sell the business or simply give the business to those who’ve made it what it is, our employees, leaving them with their destinies in their own hands,” Arnold concluded.
Employees who work 1,000 hours in a one-year period will be automatically enrolled in the ESOP, which will assume control of 100 percent of the business from the Arnolds starting in January 2020.