Delaware offers good business climate

I was flattered to have Dogfish Head mentioned in the recent piece by Michael Fleming "Can Wilmington ever catch the Uber economy?" That said, Dogfish Head has become more and more successful in large part because of the business climate in Delaware, not in spite of it.

From partnering with Delaware's Division of Tourism to help move forward on a plan to identify Delaware breweries and wineries as tourism destinations, to working with scientists and professors at the University of Delaware to create "Delaware Native Ale," to having extremely responsive government officials – we are proud to be a Delaware business and proud to send millions of six packs out coast to coast every year.

Each six pack bares a map of Coastal Delaware on its base and we invite beer lovers in the cities within a day's drive to hop in a car or cab (Uber or old school) and follow the map to visit us.

And while Mr. Fleming mentions an onerous regulatory system, we have found the opposite. Starting in 1995 when then Gov. Carper signed the Delaware Brewpub Statute, which I helped to draft as a 25-year-old aspiring entrepreneur, into law. And more recently, as a grizzled 45 year old vet, I was quite pleased when Governor Markell required his administration to do a thorough review of regulations across state agencies because that just made sense. But we haven't really seen problems with that or with the cost of doing business. Quite the contrary.

We love doing business in Delaware. That's why we've invested north of 60 million dollars over the last three years in our Sussex County faculties and hired dozens of co-workers in the same period. We will be announcing additional Dogfish businesses in the coming months and are on pace to add a couple dozen more jobs in the next year.

We at Dogfish Head are confident Delaware is headed in the right direction and we are inspired by fellow entrepreneurs like Ami Ray who opened The Backyard restaurant in Milton and the Buccini Brothers who invest so much in the future of Wilmington, proving we can each do our part to keep the momentum going and growing. Together we are heavy.

Sam Calagione

President and Founder

Dogfish Head