Two Fairhope businesses win Alabama Retailer of the Year award

FAIRHOPE, Ala. (WPMI) — Two Fairhope businesses have won an Alabama Retailer of the Year award from the Alabama Retail Association. They were selected among nominations from across the state.

Fairhope Brewing Company opened its doors in 2013 with only two beers on tap and a limited draft distribution in Mobile and Baldwin counties but has grown exponentially over the last six years. Today, the company’s managing partners, Brian Kane and Jim Foley, were named Alabama’s 2019 Gold Retailers of the Year in the Annual Sales $1 Million to $5 Million category. Kane and Foley were honored today during the Alabama Retail Day awards luncheon in Birmingham.

As Lower Alabama’s first craft brewery, the partners have been community focused from the beginning. Kane said, “Rather than overthink the name and try to come up something clever and funny, we thought, ‘Just say Fairhope.’ ” The pelican in the logo also has a local flavor. “We felt like that was something that was very representative of our area,” Kane said.

Their products, however, are reaching far beyond the Eastern Shore. Fairhope Brewing Company beers are available on tap and in bottles in bars, restaurants and retailers all over the state of Alabama, the Florida panhandle and Mississippi Gulf Coast. The company has synced a custom-coded beer finder to its inventory management system, and customers can type in a city name or zip code and find a place that carries Fairhope Brewing Company on a map that is current and updated weekly.

The brewery’s taproom also offers a variety of handcrafted beers, and this experience is tied to word-of-mouth marketing.

Mary Beth Greene launched mb greene llc, her own designer line of totes and bags, in 2015 after more than 10 years as a sales rep in the wholesale industry. Her bag collections can be found in Neiman Marcus and more than 700 boutiques throughout the United States and the Caribbean. The company has also been featured on Good Morning America, TODAY and in the Los Angeles Times, InStyle magazine and other regional and national media.

Today, Greene was honored as the Bronze Alabama Retailer of the Year in the Annual Sales Less Than $1 Million category during the Alabama Retail Day awards luncheon. Greene and her business were among 14 retail businesses honored today as Retailers of the Year. The Alabama Retailer of the Year awards, started in 1999, honor retailers who have demonstrated growth, innovation and a commitment to their respective communities. This year’s winners came from a pool of more than 70 nominees.

All mb greene products are designed and shipped from the company’s office and warehouse in Fairhope, yet Greene has spread her marketing message well beyond the Eastern Shore. The 2019 Retailer of the Year judges made note of the wide recognition the designer has received. “She has gotten so much exposure,” one of the judges said. “She’s done so much in such a short amount of time.”