One of Oregon’s top beer distributors is investing behind its portfolio of craft offerings. Oregon City’s General Distributors Inc., a 3 million case-per-year outfit that delivers beer to 11 counties in the greater Portland area, last week announced plans to launch a dedicated “craft & specialty team” that will “position the company for future growth and success.”
Craft beer volume is up 16 percent at the midway point of 2015, according to a recent Brewers Association (BA) report. Year-to-date through the end of June, U.S. craft brewers sold approximately 12.2 million barrels of beer, per the BA’s data, up from 10.6 million barrels sold during the same period in 2014.
Alltech, a global biotech company focused on human and animal nutrition, has acquired two European craft breweries. Earlier this week, the company announced the purchase of The Station Works Brewery in Ireland and Cumberland Breweries Ltd. in England.
Atlanta’s Sweetwater Brewing is reportedly planning to go public. Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter, said Sweetwater is “in talks with banks about a stock market flotation that could come later this year and value the company in the hundreds of millions of dollars.” The news comes just one week after SweetWater made two key executive changes.
Anheuser-Busch InBev today announced it has agreed to purchase R. Ippolito Distributing, a 700,000 case A-B wholesaler based in Staten Island, New York. The transaction is expected to “close shortly” and specific terms were not disclosed.
A recent Nielsen survey aimed at “getting inside the minds of craft beer consumers” was outlined during today’s Brewers Association Power Hour conference call. 52 percent of all respondents considered beer a “strong fit” with the description “craft.” That’s compared to just 25 percent for spirits, 20 percent and less than 10 percent for items like coffee, juice, and chocolate.
Rapidly outgrowing its original facility, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery has announced plans to construct a $28 million production and packaging campus alongside Virginia’s Tuckahoe Creek.
In a pre-event stroll around Founders’ ever-expanding brewery in Grand Rapids, Mich. on Tuesday, company co-founder Dave Engbers quipped at one point, “That wall wasn’t here yesterday.”
Elysian Brewing co-founder Dick Cantwell is going to work for the Brewers Association. Less than four months after Cantwell resigned from Anheuser-Busch InBev — the international brewing conglomerate that in January acquired the famed Seattle-based beer company he helped start – the former brewmaster will step in as the organization’s new “quality ambassador.”
North American Breweries (NAB) yesterday announced the permanent closure of its Berkeley, Calif. Pyramid Alehouse, a restaurant and brewery that had been operating in the Oakland suburb since 1997. According to a press statement from NAB, which purchased Pyramid Breweries in 2010 after its tie-up with Magic Hat, the shut down is part of a broader, company-wide strategy focused on consolidating production at its Portland, Ore., and Seattle, Wash. facilities.
In a hybrid management buyout and employee stock ownership transaction, Odell Brewing will sell 70 percent of the company to brewery employees, co-founder and CEO Wynne Odell told Brewbound. The deal, first announced late last night, will see 51 percent of the company transferred to three members of the executive management team — director of sales Eric Smith, COO Brendan McGivney and CFO Chris Banks. 19 percent of the company will be sold remaining brewery employees (currently 115).
New Belgium Brewing will begin construction on a new 10-barrel pilot brewery this summer in downtown Denver where it will focus on small batch, barrel-aged sour offerings, the company announced today.
Another Colorado craft brewery has turned ownership over to its employees. Fort Collins-based Odell Brewing tonight announced the establishment of an employee stock ownership plan, selling 19 percent of company stock into a newly formed trust in which all 115 employees will participate.
We’re just 24 hours away from our sixth Brew Talks meetup of the year and we’ve got one final program announcement to make. Brewbound has invited three insanely knowledgeable industry professionals, all of whom are deeply connected with the craft scene throughout Michigan, to discuss the opportunities and challenges that craft brewers face as they look to grow their brands at the local level.
