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Case Study: In a Tough Market, NoDa Is Growing by Leveraging Quality and Retail Flexibility

Bucking the current headwinds to grow via distribution, Charlotte’s NoDa Brewing has ambitions to become no less (and no more) than the brand of the Carolinas.

Joe Stange May 2, 2024 - 22 min read

Case Study: In a Tough Market, NoDa Is Growing by Leveraging Quality and Retail Flexibility Primary Image

Chad Henderson Photo: Courtesy NoDa Brewing

While many around the country are shrinking their maps and digging deeper roots—or just focusing on their taprooms—there are still local breweries out there with regional aspirations. One such is a 13-year-old North Carolina company that has blossomed outward from the arty neighborhood that is its namesake.

NoDa opened in 2011 on Charlotte’s North Davidson Street, cofounded by Suzie and Todd Ford and brewer Chad Henderson. With NoDa’s enduring local popularity and national reputation for quality—winning a Great American Beer Festival medal in its first year, a World Beer Cup gold in its third, and more medals since—local writers sometimes refer to NoDa as the “crown jewel” of their beer scene.

Along the way, the brewery opened two more locations—its North End production brewery and taproom in 2015, and its taproom in Concourse A of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 2018. (NoDa shut its original taproom in 2016, only to reopen it a few years later … before the pandemic closed it again. Thus, the brewery got to celebrate a grand re-reopening of its first taproom—dubbed the OG—in August 2022.)

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Joe Stange is Managing Editor of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® and the Brewing Industry Guide®. Have story tips or suggestions? Contact him at [email protected].

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