Former Popchips CEO and the snack brand’s current co-chairman, Paul Davis, has joined Craft Brew Alliance’s board of directors, the beer company announced yesterday. Davis, whose resume includes running companies like Coinstar/Redbox, Kettle Foods and Barilla America, brings more than “three decades of consumer packaged goods experience” to the CBA board, the company said in a statement.
Cigar City, a leading independent brewery based in Tampa, Fla., has agreed to sell controlling interest to Boston-based private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners, which already owns majority stakes in Oskar Blues, Perrin Brewing and the Utah Brewers Cooperative outfit that includes the Wasatch and Squatters brands. Together, the five craft breweries make up what the firm calls United Craft Brews LLC., a holding company and special purpose fund set up specifically for craft brewery acquisitions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed and the transaction is expected to close within the next 90 days.
The pay-to-play saga continues in Massachusetts. 10 days after agreeing to pay a $2.6 million fine for violating state laws that prohibit unfair trade practices and illegal pay-to-play activities, the Craft Beer Guild of Massachusetts, which also does business as Craft Brewers Guild, has filed a complaint with the state’s Suffolk County Superior Court.
In an effort to fill demand, Tree House will build a sizeable new brewery capable of eventually producing more than 125,000 barrels per year. In a blog posted to the company’s website on Tuesday, co-founder Nate Lanier detailed the company’s plans to build a 45,000 sq. ft. brewing facility in Charlton, Mass. Complete with a 50-barrel brewhouse and fermentation tanks as large as 240 barrels, the new brewery will initially be capable of producing 30,000 barrels annually, a significant increase from the 11,000 barrels Tree House will make in 2016.
Add West Virginia to Bell’s growing U.S footprint. One day after revealing its Mississippi distributors, the Michigan-based craft beer maker today announced it has signed agreements with a trio of Anheuser-Busch wholesalers throughout West Virginia. Proud Eagle, Mountain Eagle and Northern Eagle will begin selling the Bell’s brand throughout by mid-July, the brewery said in a statement.
Craft Brew Alliance will break ground on its new 100,000-barrel Kona Brewing facility on Friday, commemorating the event with a traditional Hawaiian blessing ceremony and the limited-release of “First Rock Pale Ale.”
He doesn’t always retire. But when he does, he prefers it to be on Mars. Jonathan Goldsmith, the 77-year old actor best known for his role as Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World,” will appear in his final commercial for the Mexican-themed beer brand owned by Dutch brewer Heineken, on Thursday
About two and a half hours north of Miami, there’s a small brewery where every beer on tap is made with citrus. Calling itself a “grove to glass craft beer project,” Orchid Island Brewery views itself as the Floridian equivalent of a Belgian farmhouse brewery. The company pays homage to Florida’s rich history of citrus growers by sourcing grapefruit, oranges and other citrus fruits from local growers.
Boulevard Brewing today announced it would add Michigan to a growing national footprint that now includes 35 states. The company has signed with Imperial Beverage for statewide coverage and expects to begin shipping beer next month. In a press statement, Boulevard also said it would enter Kentucky with Beer House Distributors, part of the Sheehan Family Companies, a move that was announced alongside a handful of planned market entries at the end of last year.
New Belgium today announced it has hired longtime Diageo executive Ruairi Twomey as its new vice president of marketing. Twomey, who most recently served as the VP of marketing for Diageo Guinness USA and brings more than 15 years of beer and spirits experience to the Colorado-headquartered brewery, will join the New Belgium executive leadership team on March 14.
It took 18 months, but Brew Hub has finally selected a site for its second “partner” brewing facility. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Brew Hub’s development partner, Green Street, has a “letter of intent to acquire a 7-acre property at the southwest corner of Chesterfield Airport Road and Spirit of St. Louis Boulevard.”
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has accepted a $300,000 offer in compromise from Anheuser-Busch InBev following allegations that the world’s largest beer maker violated Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act consignment sales provisions.
New Belgium is making its way up the east coast. The Colorado-headquartered craft brewery today announced plans to enter New York, its 44th state, in May. New Belgium, which is on the verge of opening a secondary production facility in Asheville, North Carolina, has signed agreements with 14 wholesalers – eight Anheuser-Busch distributors, four Miller/MillerCoors houses and two independents — for coverage throughout the state
Craft Brew Alliance today announced its 2015 financial results, highlighting a net sales increase of just 2 percent and a shipment decrease of 1 percent across its core family of brands including Kona, Redhook, Widmer, Omission and Square Mile Cider. CBA shipped a total of 824,400 barrels in 2015, down from 830,200 the year prior. Despite the dip, CBA managed to improve gross margin by 110 basis points, to 30.5 percent in 2015, resulting in a 6 percent gross profit increase of $3.5 million.
