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Founders closes Detroit taproom just as new racial discrimination lawsuit filed

Founders Brewing announced the sudden closure of their Detroit taproom, near Little Caesars Arena, on Monday night, citing the lack of foot traffic after the pandemic.

Also on Monday, a former Founders Detroit employee files a racial discrimination complaint against the brewery, the second time the Detroit taproom has been the subject of a complaint.

The complaint was filed on Monday. The former employee, who self identified in the complaint as African American, says they were employed with the brewery from June 2021 to April 2023, alleging an “objectively racially hostile” work environment.

Back in 2019, the Detroit taproom closed after a similar lawsuit was filed. In a deposition, the Founders Brewing manager at the time claimed he didn’t know an employee was black after the worker filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Michigan brewery.

According to the suit, Tracy Evans worked at Founders from 2014 to 2018. The lawsuit alleged Evans, who is black, was fired shortly after telling a supervisor he was going to meet with human resources to discuss a racist work environment. Co-workers used racial slurs around Evans and the company called its printer managers used the “white guy printer,” while the general employee printer was named the “black guy printer” the lawsuit stated.

A settlement between the brewery and employee was reached in late 2019.

Founders would eventually reopen the Detroit taproom in 2020, saying the profits from the next three years would be donated to charities and community organizations. The company also planed to create a diversity and inclusion strategy.

On May 1, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. Founders Brewing Mug Club members received an email from the company announcing the Detroit taproom’s closure.

“It is with sincere regret that we inform you that our Founders Detroit Taproom will be closing permanently today,” the company wrote in their email.

Founders attested the closure to a downturn in the craft beer industry and a struggle to retain pre-pandemic foot traffic.

“We felt that maintaining this additional operation was no longer a viable option,” Founders wrote.

“We are deeply saddened and concerned to learn of the recent accusations that have been brought against the Detroit Taproom. We take these claims very seriously, and we are conducting a thorough internal investigation. Since 2019, we have instituted mandatory bias, discrimination and harassment training throughout our organization. We have reexamined our policies and enacted new policies, along with implementing new procedures for the reporting of workplace concerns.

Closing a business is a difficult decision, and this decision was made after a several year evaluation of the Detroit Taproom’s financial performance that began prior to COVID and was made worse by the pandemic. During the closure of our Detroit facility on Monday, we were unaware of the filing. We announced the closing to all of our Detroit staff on Monday morning, and did not learn about the lawsuit filed against Founders until that evening when a reporter contacted us. As with any closure, there was a lot of work that needed to be done to prepare for the loss of this extension, including redistribution of internal assets, conversations with our landlord and pulling together a comprehensive severance plan, all of which take time.

As to the pending lawsuit, we are sorry that this individual did not have a good experience with us, and to the extent it was due to our actions or inactions that contributed to that, we are deeply sorry.

For any additional Media requests or inquiries, please contact: Media@FoundersBrewing.com.”

Founders Brewing Co.

You can read the newly filed complaint below:


About the Authors
Ken Haddad headshot

Ken Haddad has proudly been with WDIV/ClickOnDetroit since 2013. He also authors the Morning Report Newsletter and various other newsletters, and helps lead the WDIV Insider team. He's a big sports fan and is constantly sipping Lions Kool-Aid.

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