KPS Capital Partners, LP ("KPS") announced today that it signed a definitive agreement to sell its portfolio company, North American Breweries Holdings, LLC ("NAB" or the "Company"), to Cerveceria Costa Rica, S.A. ("CCR"), a subsidiary of Florida Ice and Farm Company, S.A., for $388 million in cash. NAB is one of the largest independently owned beer companies in the United States and the owner of a diverse portfolio of brands including Labatt, Genesee, Seagram's Escapes, Magic Hat, Pyramid, the Original Honey Brown Lager, Dundee and MacTarnahan's. NAB operates four state-of-the-art breweries and seven retail locations located in New York, Vermont, California, Oregon and Washington.
I'd like to write more, but I'm on the road (New England for the holiday) and Google's latest version of the iPhone blogger app is absolutely unusable. But please discuss. This is big news--at least at the level of augury. We're seeing the ghost of breweries future, I think.
Let's hope that we are not seeing the ghost of breweries future! Anyway, I thought that Labatt was owned by AB-Inbev, but I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I try to stick to small and locally brewed beer. During the holidays, I got to visit a newish (< 1 yr) brewery and distillery (also < 1 yr) in SW Michigan. I try to stick with my roots in Michigan but some of these are getting big and I think that some of there "flagship" beers are not as good as they once were. I say, stay small and off the radar, then the possibility of being gobbled up by big conglomerates are lessened.
Who's next?
Jason, your an idiot. Your saying stick to local breweries that never gain enough popularity to grow (taste like ass) and then you are good to go. Who was a better band the Rolling Stones or the garage band that never played an arena..hmm...that is your philosohpy in life..dont drink whats popular cause it must be crap...and therefore you are an idiot...also I love local but i dont make my decisions based on the size of a company, I make it based on the quality of the product and this is not and inverse correlation..just because somehting is owned by a larger entity doesnt mean is it immediately deemed crap..but assuming this truth is makes you a genuinely uneducated person
ReplyDeleteLabatt, the brewery and it's Canadian-marketed brands, are owned by AB-InBev.
ReplyDeleteIn the US, the label is owned by NAB - selling off the US rights to the brand was part of the anti-trust settlement with the Feds that allowed InBev to swallow AB. (Labatt had a very large market share in NY and other Great Lakes states).
So, in the US the imported Labatt beers are brewed in Canada - by Molson (another part of the settlement- "Find another brewer") and NAB brews some US-only Labatt-labeled beers in Rochester, NY- a Lime-flavored one, and some "retro" craft-ish styles.