A group led by hard cider entrepreneur Brett Williams acquired a stake in Wachusett Brewing Company last September, Brewbound has learned.
“An opportunity presented itself during the pandemic to invest in Wachusett and we decided to do so,” Williams told Brewbound Thursday. “We are the only people that are crazy enough to invest in a brewery in a pandemic.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Wachusett co-founder Ned LaFortune retained his ownership stake in the business and remains CEO of the company.
Following Williams’ investment in Wachusett, long-time Wachusett president Christian McMahan parted ways with the company in November 2020. Wachusett has since further changed its team and its board composition.
Wachusett was the 43rd largest craft brewery by volume in 2019, producing 73,239 barrels of products, according to data from the Brewers Association.
Williams’ name is familiar to industry watchers. In 2012, he sold the Vermont Hard Cider Company, which makes the Woodchuck Hard Cider brand, to Irish cider company C&C for $305 million.
A year later, he invested in New York’s Montauk Brewing Company, which is brewed at Wachusett’s facility in Westminster, Massachusetts.
Williams’ ties to Wachusett go deeper than a co-packing agreement; they reach back to childhood, as LaFortune and Williams were friends and attended the same high school. It’s that connection that led to Montauk producing its offerings at Wachusett.
Williams’ group invested in Wachusett through Blueberry Ale Inc. — a reference to one of Wachusett’s flagship offerings — which was formed in mid-July 2020, according to articles of incorporation filed with the commonwealth of Massachusetts. The description of Blueberry Ale’s business is listed as “beer manufacturer/brewery.”
Williams is listed as Blueberry Ale Inc.’s president, with longtime Vermont Cider CEO Dan Rowell named treasurer and John May, who works for Team Williams, Brett Williams’ philanthropic group, listed as secretary. Both Rowell and May are also directors of Blueberry Ale.
“We’re putting a portion of the band back together to focus on Wachusett and the future,” Williams explained, calling Rowell “the best operations guy in the business.”
Filings with the Massachusetts secretary of the commonwealth last year reveal changes in the makeup of Wachusett.
Between December 2017 and December 2019, LaFortune and Gerald “Jerry” Sheehan, the scion of the Sheehan beer wholesaler network, were listed as the board directors in annual reports filed with the state of Massachusetts. Sheehan’s interest in Wachusett beyond serving as a director is cloudy. However, his network of wholesalers distributes Wachusett products in several northeastern states, according to Sheehan Family Companies websites. Sheehan did not return a request for comment.
A statement of change of supplemental information, filed with the state on August 13, 2020, no longer lists Sheehan as a director.
Wachusett now lists five directors: LaFortune, Rowell, Walter Scott (the former chairman of the board of Woodchuck), John Schachter, and Mark Slater. An amendment filed in early September 2020 increased the number of company directors to between three and five as determined by shareholder vote.
LaFortune, Rowell, Scott, Schachter and Slater were again listed as directors in Wachusett’s December 2020 annual report.
May described the strategy for Wachusett moving forward as a “three-legged stool,” with the Wachusett brand itself, a co-packing arm for Montauk and other producers, and taproom businesses (Wachusett operates taprooms in Westminster, Worcester and Cambridge in the former John Harvard’s Brewery & Ale House location).
Helping guide that direction will be Matt Quinlan, longtime Long Trail Brewing Company director of operations. Quinlan will take a similar role at Wachusett starting March 1. Wachusett is also in the process of hiring a new director of sales, a sales rep for the Boston area and other operations workers.
Part of the company’s future, Williams said, includes potential acquisitions to build a platform in Massachusetts.
“We’d like to build a portfolio of brands in the northeast that have similar values and synergies to drop into that building,” he said.
“If there are other acquisitions that come around that are small brands that fit into our strategy that’s absolutely something we would consider, and we’re actually going to start looking for,” he added.