Growly Delivers is a new locally owned delivery service that operates like the milkman business model, but instead of delivering bottles of dairy, delivery drivers drop off craft beverages, from growlers of beer to bottles of kombucha.
Growly Delivers launched with Valley-based brewery PHX Beer Co., which has locations in Phoenix and Scottsdale, to provide subscribers with fresh brew every week. It will soon add other craft beverage artisans to its roster.
The process is simple: Sign up for a weekly subscription, pay a $10 flat delivery fee and get growlers delivered to your doorstep every Thursday. The sustainability-centric company then takes the empty bottles back to the brewery to sanitize and reuse. Subscribers can also opt to have their beverage delivered in a high-tech growler that uses a compressor to keep the drink fresh for up to two weeks.
“Our mission is to help lovers of craft beverages connect with the artisans who create these unbelievable craft beverages,” Growly Delivers co-founder Brown Russell says. “We want to make that convenient on both sides.”
Russell wants craft brewers to reach a wider audience while making it convenient for craft beverage connoisseurs to have access to the product.
“We’re a delivery service that makes a difference,” he adds. “Supporting local businesses is really the best thing for a lot of reasons, both economically and from an environmental standpoint.”
Growly delivers on route, not on demand, which Russell says reduces carbon emissions and traffic.
“We deliver on a regular schedule every week just like the milkman would,” he says.
When the pandemic hit, PHX Beer Co. brewery director Adam Wojcik says he played around with the idea of a delivery service, but eventually decided it was too difficult. When Russell approached him with the partnership, he “couldn’t be more excited,” he says.
“We were very happy to see how well they take care of the beer once it leaves the brewery,” he says. “This is our sampling opportunity right now. Not only that, but it’s helping keep our taproom alive. It’s getting all of our beers out into the Phoenix market and people are able to enjoy them, keeping in mind that it’s a local company delivering them.”
Russell says supporting local artisans and entrepreneurs like Wojcik and his team both supports the environment and creates community in the Phoenix area.
“Big corporations have brought a lot of benefit to the world, but I think there’s a feeling among a lot of people that the world’s become too mass-oriented and we’ve lost connection with where we live, the people we live around and our community,” he says. “That’s because everything that we get is from somewhere else. We’re not really connected with our sense of place.”
He also notes that it’s often hard for smaller, local beverage artisans to get noticed and to get people to try new stuff. Growly Delivers helps drive awareness and “create an ecosystem around craft beverages in Phoenix,” he says.
“We’ve been getting tremendous feedback. People love it,” Russell says. “(Craft beverages) taste better. People appreciate that, love it and look forward to it, and it gives them the opportunity to try new stuff easily.”
Wojcik adds that people appreciate the ease of a delivery platform, whether its coffee or craft beer.
“There’s a ton of convenience to be able to order without having to drive down to the taproom,” he says. “We’d love to have people down here, but the next best alternative is to have it delivered to their door.”
Russell’s hope for the future is to grow the customer base on both sides, adding more vendors and more subscribers.
“That’s our plan over the next year,” he says. “Grow things out and increase the size of the ecosystem.”
