Tag: acquisitions

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Future Legacy

Back when SABInBev started buying up craft breweries, it became evident that they were pursuing a geographic fit first followed by style categories. Now there is a new player from the craft sector, Legacy.

I don’t mean to paint Legacy and by extension Ninkasi Brewing of Eugene, Oregon out as a global villain. An acquisition strategy written down is often different from what plays out so it will be interesting if any California breweries are on the list of future possibilities since Legacy has now bought one brewery each in Oregon and Colorado.

I will keep the blog updated if anything happens in SoCal.

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A Kirin Grows in Brooklyn

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Kirin buys into Brooklyn Brewery reads the headline. File this under, not super shocking acquisition news. Brooklyn Brewery has been expanding East for a while now. Plus they are looking forward to construction bills for their proposed Navy Yard complex hitting their mailboxes. A new stream of money was probably needed.

And give them credit for being smart about it. Get people amped about a new project and about brewing more in-house and then bring the news of the investment later. Then counter any aggrieved by keeping the investment below the Brewers Association threshold. Plus they went with a corporation but not the evil empire seeing that Lagunitas caught less hell by partnering with Heineken. Craft beer buyers seem to save their precious vitriol for SABInBevMinusMiller and no less about the big players in the foreign scene.

It is pretty clear that the Ottaway’s in charge are paying attention to how the beer fan community perceives announcements as opposed to other breweries who are tone-deaf in both their “breaking news” and responses.

Of course timing helped too. Brooklyn news was soon eclipsed by the layoffs at Stone and now most people, especially on the West Coast will probably never really get the information and thus still think of them as fully independent.

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Enjoy Beer (& Acquisitions)

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The money has found craft beer. Now it hasn’t penetrated that deep into the sub-strata of breweries who would like/need loans. Start-ups especially. But the private equity is looking for assets and they are tapping insiders.
First it was Oskar Blues detailing a plan of acquisition and now Rich Doyle (formally of Harpoon Brewery) has established Enjoy Beer LLC, that the Brewbound website describes as “an acquisition vehicle and craft beer consortium that he hopes will one day become a publicly traded company with multiple craft brands under its control.”

And they have come out of the gate with the purchase of Abita Beer of Louisiana. Enjoy Beer will be behind the scenes with sales, marketing, money to help the breweries under their banner better compete with national AKA BMC brands as well as those regional superpowers with multiple brewing locations.

How these umbrella corp’s will evolve will be an interesting social/beer/business test.

Here are my questions:
1. What if one brand takes off? How will the others react if they feel slighted?
2. Will breweries want to be part of a corporate structure taking orders from on high?
3. Will brewers move from one brand in the family to another and take recipes with them?

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Firkin for February 2015

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The e-mail was tongue in cheek with an introduction of “No, we haven’t been purchased by Anheuser Busch.” That the joke would land without explanation shows that the acqusition speed of the craft arm of ABInBev has been dialed up.

Elysian Brewing of Seattle is the latest to join an Anheuser-Busch portfolio that includes 10 Barrel Brewing of Bend, Oregon, Blue Point of New York and Goose Island of Chicago.

But the mergers and acquisitions aren’t relegated to the King of Beers. Over the holiday break, the news was reported that Founder’s Brewing had sold a 30% stake in their company to the Spanish brewery concern San Miguel. Also in the foreign owned club is Boulevard Brewing which became a member of the Duvel Moortgat family in 2014.

Are these ownership changes the inevitable start to craft beer consolidation? If so, who would be a target in our region?

Both are questions that are speculative at the moment, but California breweries haven’t been immune to selling beloved local institutions with Anchor Brewing (and distilling) being sold by craft beer icon and founder Fritz Maytag to the Griffin Group.

Or will California usher in a new model for use going forward in the Green Flash purchase of Alpine Brewing of craft joining with craft. In earlier years, that has been frowned on (see example of Widmer/Kona/Redhook?) but it may be how to achieve the goals of brewing and distributing more beer without losing the craft beer cachet that is lost when selling to a larger company.

Will the business world tactic of growing bigger to make yourself to costly a purchase also come into play? Could the Torrance breweries form a conglomerate to thwart a takeover bid? That is more speculation but I wouldn’t be surprised to see The Bruery and Monkish Brewing join forces.

Because most Los Angeles breweries are still incredibly young in comparison to the rest of the country, these questions of may not be asked this year. Our locals may not (yet) be on the radar of MillerCoors or ABInBev either. But that doesn’t mean ownership will stay the same. Noble Ale Works has been forced to adapt to a changed team of ownership due to extraordinary circumstances. The late Haven Brewing and Nibble Bit Tabby both bowed to management discord of varying degrees that led to their taps being silent.

This leaves us with one more question. Perhaps the most worrying one. How will this affect the beer in your pint glass? Your loyalty to a locally owned brewery might be tested in the coming years.