Potter’s Craft Cider expands production in Woolen Mills

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - A big part of Potter’s Craft Cidery will be relocating and expanding to somewhere a little closer to downtown Charlottesville.

Potter’s new location here in Woolen Mills is bringing jobs, tourism, and a lot more apples to Albemarle County. It’s expanding to meet growing out-of-state demand.

“We just ran out of space. We needed to move the operation somewhere that had excess capacity, that was close to major highways, and that had a good place inside of the community. We really liked the Broadway Corridor for that,” Co-founder Tim Edmond said.

Potters is moving production from its long time location in Free Union to an eleven thousand square foot Woolen Mills warehouse.

“We’re going to expand distribution to Florida and Georgia, and we’re going to be adding several new products. I grew up in Florida, so I’m excited to be close to home,” Edmond said.

The cidery was able to do this in part with an agriculture and forestry industries development (AFID) grant from Richmond.

“It is a great economic development effort because not only will Potter’s add jobs, eight jobs in Albemarle County, but they’re going to buy an incremental one and a half million pounds of apples from Virginia suppliers. When you see entrepreneurs, like the owners of Potter’s Craft Cider, investing in growth, it just translates into a more vibrant ecosystem for folks to enjoy,” Governor Youngkin said.

Governor Youngkin says he’s excited to see what this will bring.

“For now. It’s just production that’s relocating, but we do have plans to bring a tasting room to our new location in the future,” Edmond said.

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