Massachusetts brewery forced to cut jobs due to CO2 shortage: ‘Huge threat to our business’

Automotive fuel is not the only gas in short supply.

A popular craft brewery and small business success story in Massachusetts is cutting jobs after learning a CO2 shortage is forcing its supplier to cut deliveries.

“Our CO2 supply has been reduced for the foreseeable future, possibly more than a year until we get more,” Everett’s Night Shift Brewing announced Wednesday via Facebook, just outside the US. exterior of downtown Boston.

“This is a huge threat to our business,” the company also said.

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Carbon dioxide is essential for the production of beer and many other foods and beverages.

Twelve employees have been told they could lose their jobs in October, the Facebook post says, as the fallout from COVID-19 restrictions continues to devastate sectors of the economy.

“Since COVID hit, we’ve been dealing with various supply chain shortages and all kinds of issues,” Night Shift Brewing co-founder Michael Oxton told FOX Business in an interview. phone Friday.

“It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It put us in a difficult situation. It’s awful.”

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As many as a dozen other Massachusetts breweries are also facing CO2 shortages, he said.

Empty cans walk down the line waiting to be filled with beer at Night Shift Brewing in Everett, Mass., in July 2016. Night Shift faced challenges during the COVID pandemic due to aluminum supply issues and other supply chain issues. (Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images/Getty Images)

“It’s shaping up to be a long, hot summer for the U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) market, with some areas [across America] is seeing tighter supply,” Gasworld, which reports on the global industrial gas sector, announced on July 4.

Night Shift was founded in 2012.

It has been hailed as one of the most successful craft breweries in the country.

Night Shift Brewing co-founders Robert Burns (left), Michael Oxton (center) and Michael O’Mara (right) on March 3, 2015. (Stuart Cahill/MediaNews/Getty Images)

It was the third-largest brewery in Massachusetts in 2020, behind industry giant Samuel Adams and regional craft beer titan Harpoon Brewery, according to the Boston Business Journal.

“This was a horrible, terrible conversation to have with a really great group of people, many of whom have been with us from the start,” the company’s social media post said of the impending job losses.

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Production will continue with help from other local breweries, while Night Shift’s brewery will remain open and operating as usual, Oxton said.

The brewery, he said, has also been battling shortages of the malt and aluminum used in its popular colored beer cans over the past two years.

Night Shift employees number 110 year-round – and up to 150 during the busy summer season.