Devil’s Advocates on Catman, Upfront Investments and More

Dear Client: These distributor-small supplier disputes involving things like franchise laws and upfront payments may seem cleanly divisive and redundant, but there is more nuance than it seems. Not every craft brewer is gunning for franchise law reform. Earlier this week Lagunitas chief Tony Magee said it's dangerous and "stupid" to mess with something "so fundamental to the structure of the landscape."Now, Tony can be a contrarian, and he's staring down the barrel of about 650,000-plus of them this year.