[ad_1]
Founders Brewing Co. sells most of its business to its minority shareholder based in Spain.
The Grand Rapids-based company, the 14th largest brewery in the United States since last year, filed filings with the Michigan Liquor Control Commission last week stating that the Spanish company Best Beer Inc., affiliated with the Mahou-San Miguel group based in Madrid, would hold a 90 percent stake in the company. MiBiz of Grand Rapids first reported the deal.
The founders, founded in 1997, sold 30% of the capital to the Mahou-San Miguel group in December 2014 to fuel its expansion. San Miguel, founded in 1890, is the largest artisanal brewer in Spain.
Mahou bought out all existing shareholders, with the exception of co-founders Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers, the brewery confirmed in a statement. Stevens and Engbers will retain a 5% stake in the brewery, according to the MiBiz report.
The company expects daily operations to remain unchanged after the transaction and the Founders' management team will remain intact, the statement said.
The founders opened a machine room in Detroit – the first outside Grand Rapids – in December 2017.
The deal comes as the brewery sector in the United States slows down. Although it grew 4% in the first half of 2019, it is well below double-digit growth in more than a decade since 2005.
In Michigan, 15 have closed since August 20, 2018, including the Shipwreck Brewing Co. of St. Clair Shores, Warren Falling Down Beer Co., Munising Pictured Rocks Brewing, Jackson's CraftHouse TC and Poison Frog Brewing Co from Jackson. and Cellarmen & # 39; s Hazel Park, among others, according to the Brewers Association.
Saturation and competition have made it more difficult for breweries to survive and consolidation is underway across the sector. In 2018, Royal Oak Brewing Co. acquired the Right Brain Brewery brewery in Traverse City.
"There are a lot of breweries in trouble right now," said Dennis Loughlin, a partner at law firm Warner Norcross and Judd LLP in Southfield. Crain. "The case is probably exhausted.There are probably fewer investors who think it's cool to invest in a craft brewery or a craft brewery.This easy money that existed n & # 39; Maybe it's not there anymore, for me this indicates an industry that is maturing and that means hitting a wall. "
Mahou has been expanding its investment in the US brewing industry since it acquired the minority stake in Founders in 2014. It has acquired a 30% stake in Avery Brewing, based in Boulder, Colorado, early in the year. 2018, then increased its participation alongside Founders in Avery in April. Mahou and Founders control a 70% stake in the brewery.
"We can use all the expertise we can get," Adam Avery, founder of Avery, told Brewhound in April. "There is damn shit in our industry, and it's great to have investors who see this as a long-term game and not a kind of short-term thing."
[ad_2]
Source link