Wine Country Times

Over a year after the pandemic, and as the nation begins opening up again, many businesses throughout the nation are facing a new struggle of getting employees in the door. 

Natalie Cilurzo, co-owner of Santa Rosa's Russian River Brewing Company, said there is not a lot of incentive for people to go back to work as the additional federal unemployment and stimulus checks had made it easier for people to continue to stay home. The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit in the nation, and there seems to be no relief in sight. 

"I think as of last year, a lot of people in the restaurant business realized it was not a very stable career path, and so, I know for us, I know we had a lot of former employees pursue other education or trades that they were interested in doing. So, they ended up leaving the hospitality industry altogether," Cilurzo said in an interview with KSRO.  

Cilurzo said the problem they are seeing in trying to get people back to work is employees not wanting to because they can make more on unemployment or have been living on the stimulus checks they have received. 

"The other thing is with the additional federal unemployment and the stimulus there is not a lot of incentive for employees to make a certain amount of money to come back to work," she said.

Before the pandemic, Russian River Brewing Company employed 204 employees, Cilurzo said. Once the shut down hit, that was cut significantly. 

"March 17, 2020 we got the order to shut down and at the time we had 204 employees, primarily in hospitality between our two locations and so that week we ended up furloughing about 162 employees and then reduced hours for several more. We were left with about 37 full-time employees," she said. "We tried really hard to repurpose key positions."

Before the pandemic, Russian River Brewing Company was an award-winning brewery. Natalie and her husband co-owner Vinnie, received the “Brewers Association Recognition Award” in 2017 and Vinnie was also awarded in 2017 the “Russell Scherrer Award for Innovation in Brewing.” The brewery also has twice been named “Brewery and Brewmaster of the Year” at both the GABF and World Beer Cup, KSRO reported. 

According to the company's website, the brewery was first established in 1997 by Korbel Champagne Cellars and after six years, Korbel agreed to transfer the brand and all recipes to head brewer Vinnie.

Cilurzo said that for right now, the company will remain a brewery first with its revenue coming primarily from wholesale distribution, and they will continue on working to get the number of employees needed to keep the brewery staffed for full capacity.