The founders of Utah’s Squatters Brewery are purchasing the restaurants and brewpubs of their namesake brewery and Wasatch, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The restaurants and brewpubs were not included in the $330 million sale of the CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective’s craft beer brands and brewing infrastructure to energy drink maker Monster Beverage Company.
Squatters founders Peter Cole and Jeff Polychronis’ PRC Restaurant Company, along with boutique investment firm Sentry Financial and local investors, acquired the Salt Lake Brewing Company from CANarchy, according to the Park Record. Included in the sale are Squatters locations in Park City and Salt Lake City; Wasatch branded locations in Park City and Sugar House; Wasatch and Squatters’ locations at the Salt Lake City Airport; and the co-branded Squatters and Wasatch Craft Café.
The West Side Tavern and Cold Beer Store in Salt Lake City was not included in the transaction.
Negotiations began in mid-December, with a deal reached on January 14 that finally closed on February 17, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. A sale price was not disclosed.
Those restaurants and brewpubs will continue to sell Squatters and Wasatch beer and operate under those breweries’ names, as part of an agreement with Monster. The restaurants’ and pubs’ staff of 300 are expected to remain with the company, according to a press release. Monae Madson, who served as CANarchy’s VP of brewpubs and taprooms, will now lead the Salt Lake Brewing Company as CEO.
Cole and Polychronis founded Squatters in 1989. Squatters merged with Wasatch, Utah’s oldest microbrewery, which was founded in 1986, to form the Utah Brewers Cooperative in 2000. Cole and Polychronis sold Squatters and Wasatch to private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners in 2012 in what would become the first building block of what eventually became CANarchy.
While the Squatters and Wasatch pubs and restaurants live on, Oskar Blues’ Boulder location shuttered earlier this month.
This isn’t the first time one of a brewery’s founders has bought back some of what they sold to CANarchy. Three Weavers founder Lynne Weaver and a group of investors bought back the Inglewood, California, craft brewery in June 2021.