line cook

server assistant

server

host/hostess

bartender

Artisanal Brewing Ventures

The funny thing about Victory is everyone thinks it would be the greatest place ever to work.  And what you find out after a few months is that they are so top heavy with unqualified, incompetent child managers that anyone who is a decent, hard working person that wants to see the job done right is going to be shown the door eventually.
I can personally attest to these facts and have no fear of writing them here.  I saw dock plates in the warehouse that would malfunction repeatedly while being told by the director of distribution to ignore it.  I saw a warehouse rack collapse 3 times during the 4 years I worked there.  I saw trucks that were backed in to the dock get shoved forward when being loaded because Victory would not buy wheel chocks.  I submitted a list of about 30 improvements that needed to be made in the warehouse and distribution area to do our job safer and was told by the 24 year old boy manager who was in way over his head that my ideas were worthless and the cost was not worth implementing.
My personal favorite was being asked repeatedly to take out the truck overweight.  His reasoning was it was done in the past, there's no reason not to continue it in the future.  His official stance and I was told this word for word - the overweight fine was less than the additional cost to ship extra product.  I repeatedly told him I refuse to drive the truck overweight which led to him becoming very petty with me and looking for any reason to let me go.
Now lets get to wages.  Victory didn't pay anyone hourly in the warehouse; everyone was salary.  Of course, you can work 50, 60 hours a week and as a salaried professional you would think you would get the courtesy of being allowed to maybe leave early some time if your work was done but that was never the case.  Personally, Victory owes me almost 25000 in unpaid overtime over 4 years.  It was my boy managers feeling that I could put in 40 hours by Wednesday evening but it was still necessary for me to work full days Thursday and Friday even if nothing was planned for me because we're all salary and that's what is expected of us.  Except that courtesy was never extended in your favor.  When I would ask him to get involved with some of the places I delivered to that would sit on me for hours before unloading he would claim that there was nothing he could do about it.  So it was ok to waste hours of my time but not ok to have that time returned to me.
I can tell you this.  If you are thinking that Victory is so great, I would be so lucky to have a job there, believe me and anyone else that has posted on here about the work environment.  Ownership is a bunch of skunks that could care less about their workforce or their community.  Those two enjoy such a reputation as being Democratic and revolutionary in today's world and stewards of the environment.  Trust me, there is nothing further from the truth.  They are big businessmen just like any other who are only interested in the bottom line.  You would be a fool to take a job with Victory. Save yourself the feeling of looking back a few years from now and wishing you had made a better choice.

This place is falling apart. There's no real leadership and its painfully obvious that you're just a cog in the machine though they feign like its a family and not a soulless corporation. They just took away paid lunches for all hourly employees requiring these poor souls to come in early and/or stay late just to get their full forty hours. Which is incredible for a company that claims people as one of their "pillars of success".  And it is an especially lousy thing to do to your employees during this period of time where we face extreme inflation and unaffordable housing prices. Turnover rate is high but what do you expect from a company that regularly hamstrings and shafts its employees. Yearly raises are three percent across the board so like others mentioned there is zero incentive to do anything beyond the bare minimum. There's no telling how much money I saved the company catching and correcting mistakes with customer orders prior to shipping them out. Ofcourse there was no compensation for this not even a thank you. But if I missed anything I would receive emails threatening me with write ups and sarcastic questions like do we need to retrain you? To which I replied no I do not need retraining I need a raise and not a measly 3 percent either. They like to pretend there is plenty of opportunity for growth within the company but there isn't. And ofcourse the salaried higherups have no concern for the economic difficulties of the hourly employees.

Can be a very nice workplace sometimes, with some levels of progression but overall doesn’t offer much in anything. Management plays favorites constantly.  lets many people off the hook for all sorts of activities they get up too. Very high turnover rate from many people not willing to deal with how employees are treated from coworkers/management. No seniority or skill level matters even if a person is incompetent they will always move up if they suck up to higher management. You really have to be a strong person to stick it out in the environment victory fosters in its workplace. Very much also encourages a culture of drinking constantly and many people are terrible alcoholics, even drinking during the day and no one noticing. Many people in the company hate each other from lower levels of management to the upper levels like it’s a battle all the time. Overall, it’s not a bad job to possibly move up if the right people like you, but If not, I wouldn’t stick around so there really isn’t much career building and it’s generally simple work. 

The other reviews say it all. The beer industry is fun but not what a person really thinks. 
   The people in management positions do not have any training or education in management. They are very bias and will run you on all shifts. You will hardly see first because the chosen ones will get those shifts. Advancement is basically impossible. The pay you start out at will be basically the same until you leave. You don't get free beer or any beer while at work.  The benefits are extremely expensive.  Myself and one dependent was just under 400.00 a month. You can and some have been terminated for having a beer in the office after work. Way too many chiefs that blame the workers for their faults. Some Penn State grads that dwell on there education and like to keep there employees way below them unless they decide you can move up.  The narsiatic, aleadistt personallities in management is the reason they have high turnover rate. If you have a family or like to make decent money with decent benefits go to another company or brewery. Victory has no respect for people and it shows through the people they allow to be management.  Glad I relocated for this position just to find all this out.  Hope this helps save some.

a typical day at VBC starts by interpreting the cryptic schedule passed down from management upstairs, and figuring out how to get it done, and translate it into completable tasks.  The brewhouse and cellar are run by computers and you are needed to physically add ingredients, usually lifting upwards of 2000lbs of sugar  per batch, 50lb bags at a time, usually alone, 2-3 times a day in a  90 degree room. Management begins tasting beer at 10:30 until they leave sometime after lunch. the workplace culture is surface level, as the typical employee only stays for less than a year. the hardest part of the job is maintaining a life outside of work, as you don't work the same days one week as you did the week before, you will work every other weekend and half of the job is overnights. I learned to brew beer there on a commercial level, but the material cost outweighs what the opportunity was worth. The most enjoyable part of the job was commiserating with my peers about the shortcomings of the company and the seeminglyincompetent, reactionary, and  perfunctory management of the facility.

Corporate leadership is very disorganized and not effective communicators. Turnover rate in management is very high right now partly because of this and they are also actively paying off people since most stores are not turning profits despite making their own spirits. Quality of beer has been subpar for a long time and that has had a big impact on business. Kitchen equipment isn’t in a good place, most things were bought used over a decade ago and are just little time bombs waiting to go off. Inventory system despite only being done twice a month is based on really old technology that pretty much no one uses anymore (especially companies that are this big), and doesn’t work as intended which makes inventory process and menu rollouts an utter nightmare. Corporate leadership very slow to fix these issues even if pointed out to them multiple times. Menus are poorly costed out by leadership in NC that will make hitting food cost very hard in different markets. 

The brewer's call Victory, brewer's training camp. You will do everything that has to do with beer production and get paid terrible doing it. Long hours, dangerous equipment that is maintained by a sub-par maintenance staff. Numerous un-safe conditions exsist with-in the old and new facilities because everyone is rushed to "just get it done." Don't expect o work there too long. They pay terrible, I was paid $13 an hour to basically run the maintenance shop. Even though management and the owners are aware of the safety hazards, they will still fire you for getting a paper cut because they don't want to spend the money on workman's comp. The most enjoyable part of the job was leaving. The brewer's are a great group of hard working individuals, but the management and owner's are a fricking joke. Management = free beer, that's all they care about. They don't care about the employee. Stay away unless you want to get a boot camp like training session to move on to bigger and better things.

A typical day at VBC could include any number of job options, so every day was interesting to say the least. Being qualified to work as a server/bartender/tour guide/event manager, my plate was always full of responsibilities and challenges. Within the company I learned how to work as a cooperative and positive team. That kind of mindset is innate within the entire staff and it made going to work a lot easier. Management also came to work with a gleaming attitude that spread throughout the whole team. My co-workers became family after a very short time. The entire staff knew the importance of representing VBC well and we all did a fantastic job doing so. The hardest part of the job was keeping your own stress levels down when things became a little overwhelming. With a quick break and a drink of water, that became easy to handle as well over time. The most enjoyable part of the job was the people I was fortunate enough to work with and for.

Pros
Great group of people on the lower & mid level management tier. They put on some awesome events and the company is still relatively small where you can make an big impact and get noticed even at an entry level position. Plus free beer! I would recommend for an entry level or lower management employee.
Cons
They still act like a garage start-up sometimes and the founder likes to wing things every now and then. He is very removed from what really goes on at the company which causes problems because they leave massive gaps in department head positions which causes a strain on almost all of upper management and many other issues. He also tends to say one thing to one person and a completely different thing to another. The current CEO also acts very unethically and suspect in some scenarios. I would steer clear of this company for any Director or VP level position.

Company went through transition from local ownership and management to private equity ownership in NYC and upper management in Charlotte, NC. As a result, significant gaps in leadership began to form as upper level management became more disconnected from local operations. Massive turnover set back numerous projects and severely hindered the ability to meet production goals. Company has significantly staffed up since that time but is unclear how much inexperienced staff will help meet the company's very aggressive production goals.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Line cook 6 salaries reported	$20.42 per hour
Server assistant 7 salaries reported	$10.63 per hour
Server 2 salaries reported	$10.70 per hour
Host/hostess 1 salary reported	$15.00 per hour
Bartender 6 salaries reported	$16.18 per hour

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