Displaying items by tag: small business

The COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying shutdowns of bars, brewpubs, taprooms and tasting rooms had an undeniably negative effect on West Michigan craft beverage makers and their balance sheets.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dennis Grumm’s brand of can seamers went from a luxury amenity to a requirement for many craft beverage producers.

A health plan that for years has provided coverage for employees at beer and wine wholesalers in Michigan now looks to offer the same benefits to craft brewers, distilleries and wineries across the state, providing a potential lower-cost option to consider.

Looking back on a 2020 plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ed Collazo didn’t sound like a business owner who just saw his company’s revenue plummet by half a million dollars for the year.

Opening a cannabis dispensary comes with significant barriers, but West Michigan entrepreneurs are looking at opportunities other than retail storefronts to get their foot in the door of the burgeoning industry.

Brewery Nyx LLC owner Jessica Stricklen recently unveiled plans for what will be the first gluten-free microbrewery in Michigan, to be located at 506 Oakland Ave. SW in Grand Rapids’ Roosevelt Park neighborhood.

GRAND RAPIDS — The city’s first cannabis dispensary has launched a business incubator called Fluresh Accelerator, which aims to increase access and equity in the growing cannabis industry.

Kent County restaurant owners will get a break from paying food service licensing fees for 2021 after county commissioners approved the one-time waiver on Thursday.

GRAND RAPIDS — From the moment Steven Martinez-Thiel launched his Grand Rapids-based food startup Basalt, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to derail it.

GRAND RAPIDS — Brothers Chris and Andy Schaefer managed through cost overruns and construction delays during the COVID-19 pandemic and recently opened their new Pux Cider Taphouse in the city’s Midtown neighborhood.