Mergers & Acquisitions

Heineken-owned Lagunitas Brewing Company has closed on the sale of its 50% stake in Santa Rosa, California-based Moonlight Brewing Company to Patrick Rue, the founder of Orange County’s The Bruery and owner of Erosion Wine Co. in St. Helena, California.

“We’ll know the future of Modern Times by the end of June, I can confidently say that,” Jennifer Briggs, CEO of the San Diego, California-based brewery, said during a discussion Tuesday with Brewers Association (BA) president and CEO Bob Pease at the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) in Minneapolis.

PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta was asked just one question about the carbonated soft drink maker’s plans in the beverage alcohol space, during the company’s Q1 2022 earnings call Tuesday.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is in “active discussions” to sell its non-controlling interest in its joint venture in Russia, Efes, to its partner, Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes, the company announced today. Meanwhile, A-B InBev has appointed Ricardo Tadeu to the newly created role of chief growth officer as part of a restructure of the company’s commercial leadership team.

About 30 employees have been let go following the integration of the Bell’s Brewery organization into New Belgium after the latter’s parent company, Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages, acquired the former last fall. The layoffs amounted to less than 3% of New Belgium and Bell’s combined workforce.

Hammond Beverage Group (HBG) has struck a deal to acquire North East, Maryland-headquartered Northeast Beverage Corporation. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close June 24, were not disclosed.

Another independent canned cocktail maker boarded the “mother ship” last week when Constellation Brands announced the full acquisition of Austin Cocktails. It’s a move that’s in-step with the other global beverage companies picking up fast-growing RTD producers — but observers in the industry caution that the deal may not be the harbinger future RTD acquisitions.

The Reyes Beer Division is adding to its California map with the planned acquisition of Columbia Distributing’s business in Northern California, the companies announced this evening.

Two weeks after a jury sided with Stone Brewing in its trial against Molson Coors, the Escondido, California-headquartered craft brewer is tangled in another trademark infringement lawsuit – this time as the defendant. The founders of Laurelwood Brewing have bought back the distribution and brand rights of the Portland, Oregon-based company from Eugene, Oregon-based Ninkasi Brewing, The Oregonian reported Wednesday.

Constellation Brands’ beer business recorded an +11% increase in net sales growth, to $6.75 billion, for the company’s 2022 full fiscal year. FY 2022 marked the company’s 12th consecutive year of volume growth, with +8.8% shipments (sales to wholesalers) growth and +8.9% depletions (sales to retailers) growth – amounting to an additional 30 million case equivalents, CEO Bill Newlands said during a conference call with investors.

Cleveland-headquartered Great Lakes Brewing Company has hired long-time Boulevard Brewing brewmaster Steven Pauwels as its first chief operations officer, the company announced Thursday. Pauwels’ first day with Great Lakes will be April 4, a Great Lakes spokesperson shared with Brewbound.

Pennsylvania-based Broken Goblet Brewing, Trauger Brewing and Lucky Cat Beer Co. are merging their operations to form the Mutual Respect Brewing and Distilling Collective.

Another craft brewery is up for sale as a turnkey operation. Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Brewing Company is being offered for sale by asset disposition firm New Mill Capital.

Charlottesville, Virginia-based Three Notch’d Brewing Company has acquired the former Wild Wolf Brewing Company production facility and its 13 acres of land in Nellysford, Virginia.