Ska Brewing Co. in Durango has survived more than 30 years of shifting economic landscapes, a pandemic, a multiyear decline for craft breweries on the whole and a recent change of ownership after decades of steady leadership.
Founder and former owner Dave Thibodeau said there have been some tight financial years and a few bumps along the way – but that the community’s support for the business hasn’t waned over three-plus decades.
“We’re loyal to Durango and the people of Durango, and I feel like it’s mutual, and we’re really fortunate to have that,” he said.
Ska Brewing Co. was founded in 1995 by Thibodeau, Bill Graham and Matt Vincent. The brewery, built on a beer-based dream and a mutual love of Ska music – which the brewery’s website calls “thinking music” – has long been a cornerstone of Durango’s food and beverage scene.
Last year, after 30 years of consistent ownership by Thibodeau, the business was bought by Bob Ariano and Dave West, experienced distributors from longtime Durango families.
Thibodeau has remained involved with operations in a leadership and strategic capacity daily at Ska after the sale, but Graham and Vincent have since stepped away from the business.
The Ariano family owns A&L Coors Distribution in Durango – an independent Coors-distributing wholesaler – which sparked rumors and fears among locals back in 2025 that Ska was being sold to Coors, which Thibodeau said was not true.
Managing a distribution company before the sale was difficult for Ska, Thibodeau said, and offloading Durango-based distribution to A&L has simplified operations.
Ska also shifted its Colorado-wide distributor from Breakthru Beverage to Elite Beverage, he said.
Now, nearly a year out from selling to Ariano and West, Thibodeau said worries have cooled and little has changed for the brewery under the new ownership.
The new owners aspired to preserve Ska’s identity, brand and staff through the sale, he said, and in terms of day-to-day operations, he said it’s “almost like nothing happened.”
He called the new owners “mostly silent partners.” Attempts to reach Ariano and West for this story were unsuccessful.
Thibodeau told the Herald in June that the sale helped get Ska out of debt. He did not supply specific numbers, but said the sale eliminated major real-estate debt, which has allowed the business to breathe a bit easier.
Thanks to the financial breathing room, plans are underway for a parking lot expansion that will create 30 additional spots outside Ska’s World Headquarters at 225 Girard St., an increase in the footprint of the outside beer garden space and a kitchen update that will include a new industrial dishwasher and custom pizza oven at least three times bigger than the current one, Thibodeau said.
The new dishwasher will also allow Ska to ditch one-use plates and begin serving food on reusable dishes, he said.
Ska has also been using the sale to catch up on preventive maintenance through initiatives like updating the canning line to help it run more efficiently and renegotiating contracts with key suppliers for raw materials, CO₂ and keg leasing, he said.
Despite the income from the recent sale and Ska’s popularity across its 30 years in business, the brewery has experienced some difficult years financially, Thibodeau said, especially during and since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It took a while to rebound from (COVID-19), and then when you couple that with everything – with craft beer just slowing down across the country – (we had some) pretty tight years,” he said.
Thibodeau said wholesale revenue – beer sold to distributors and retailers in Ska’s various markets – had declined by 10% in 2022, and remained down 6% in 2023 and 2024. The following year saw a larger 21% decline, then trended in a slightly more positive direction with an 8% decrease as of March this year.
Retail sales have seen some ups and downs but paint a more positive picture overall. The sales increased by 17% in 2022, and by 22% in 2023. But that growth was interrupted by a 4% decline in 2024. Retail sales rebounded a bit in 2025 with a 1% increase and continued to trend upward in early 2026 with an 8% gain so far this year.
While those numbers provide some insight into Ska’s standing, they do not capture the business’ total revenue, Thibodeau said.
“There are many more aspects to our total revenue, but they’ve changed so much that in any given year there are a number of outliers that skew the numbers, making an apples-to-apples comparison impossible,” he said in an email to the Herald.
According to Thibodeau, the downward trend in wholesale numbers can be attributed to increased competition and shipping costs, and changes in consumer tastes.
“Last year we were down substantially, but it was expected; we knew the transition – and particularly the changes in distribution – would come with some hiccups that would take time to overcome,” he said in the email. “I believe we’re getting past it and I hope we will end 2026 slightly up in wholesale for the first time in a few years.”
Thibodeau expects two new offerings recently rolled out at Ska – a West Coast IPA and a Lo Dose Delta‑9 THC beverage – to help wholesale numbers trend in the right direction for the rest of 2026.
Ska previously distributed to multiple states in addition to the Four Corner states, including Texas, North Carolina, Illinois, Iowa and Idaho. In recent years, because of costs associated with far-reaching distribution, the business has scaled down to serve only the Four Corners states and Kansas. Ska has long sold its products in Sweden – which is the business’ second-largest market, Thibodeau said – and was still distributing there as of March.
“It was just the costs associated with selling beer in other markets,” he said. “They just became a little too expensive. You know, the farther away you get from home, like with anything, the more difficult it becomes to really stay on top of things like quality and relationships. And so we, for all those reasons, have slowly been (moving) everything closer to home.”
Of Ska’s 70 employees, only two work outside Durango, he said.
Sourcing raw materials has been a challenge in recent years, Thibodeau said – something he attributes in part to inflation and tariffs.
In response, the business has been sourcing more raw materials locally, he said, with about 99% of the brewery’s malt now being sourced from the San Luis Valley rather than from a previous supplier in Wisconsin.
Ska hasn’t experienced overly negative impacts from a poor tourism season and a lack of snow in Durango this winter, he said.
Ska’s Purgatory Resort location did “pretty well, all things considered,” but a better snow year might have meant even stronger revenue, Thibodeau said.
An unexpected upside to the warm weather has been an influx of customers coming to sip beer on Ska’s patio, he said.
On the whole, the craft beer industry has seen a decline in recent years. The Brewers Association reported that breweries closed faster than they opened for the second consecutive year in 2025, and that craft volume was down around 5% – a slight increase from 2024’s 4% decrease.
Thibodeau said he sees craft brewing as a cyclical market, and that despite negative national data, he feels optimistic about Ska’s outlook, in part because of Durango’s supportive local bubble.
Business Improvement Director Tim Walsworth called Ska “an amazing part of the community.”
“You can buy their products at every liquor store in town,” he said. “Their products are (also) on tap at just about every bar and restaurant in town.”
Ska creates local jobs and helps put Durango’s name on the map, Walsworth said, which benefits the city’s economy and attracts tourists.
“Exporting furthers Durango’s brand across the country, which is invaluable,” he said.
Thibodeau said the Ska sale has not only helped the business on the whole, but freed up his time and allowed him to get involved in trade organizations like the Colorado Brewers Guild, participate more in media coverage and radio segments, and speak on legislation that matters to him. He plans to keep working at Ska for “as long as they’ll have me.”
Growth and success at Ska is not defined singularly by revenue or volume, he said; rather, it is improving as a team, becoming more efficient and sustainable, and continuing to provide jobs in the Durango area.
“Keeping a good, cool business going in Durango ... that’s really what defines (success) for me,” he said.
epond@durangoherald.com
