The assets of New Orleans’ Faubourg Brewing Company will be sold during an early June auction that is expected to net around $2 million, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Despite a $30 million investment from Gayle Benson, the owner of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, and her late husband, Tom, the former Dixie Brewing Company and its large-scale production facility could not be saved.
The auction will include around 280 items, such as a 100-barrel, five-vessel brewing system and high-speed canning and bottling line, according to the report.
The facility opened to fanfare in 2020 and the Dixie name was dropped due to its connection with the Confederacy, with Benson touting it as an opportunity to uplift New Orleans East.
In September 2022, Faubourg merged with southeastern portfolio company Made By The Water (MBTW) – whose brands include Catawba, Palmetto, Oyster City – with Alexi Sekmakas leading the breweries, with financial backing from his father, Viktoras Sekmakas, a managing director of investment firm Wiregrass Equity Partners.
After shifting MBTW’s production to New Orleans in an effort to use the excess capacity at the plant, which was capable of producing around 55,000 barrels annually. The report said “barely 15%” of its capacity was being used at the time.
Last November, Sekmakas told Brewbound high water and tax bills and difficulty staffing were all factors in the company’s decision to cease large-scale production in New Orleans.
The company transferred 80% of its production to contract brewing outlets IndieBrew in Atlanta, Georgia, and New Realm in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with the rest spread across its small taprooms. Sekmakas also cited staffing issues due to safety in the neighborhood around the brewery leaving many unwilling to work overnight shifts, water bills that exceeded $50,000 and six-figure tax bills for the shift.
Even as this eventually ends, a spokesperson for Benson told the outlet that the Benson Group remained open to investing in other New Orleans brewing operations in the future and is “reviewing and exploring a few other opportunities.”
MBTW was the country’s 50th largest craft brewery by volume in 2022, according to the Brewers Association (BA). However, it did not appear on the BA’s list of the top 50 largest craft brewers in 2023, which was published last week.