Font ResizeAnheuser-Busch has made a play for a piece of Colorado's craft brew market, snapping up Breckenridge Brewery for an undisclosed sum, officials announced Tuesday.
Breckenridge will join The High End, AB InBev's stable of craft-beer brands acquired in recent years, including Goose Island Beer Co., Blue Point Beer Co. and Elysian Brewing Co. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.
Breckenridge, which is owned by Breckenridge-Wyn koop LLC, sells its beers in 35 states and is on track to produce 70,000 barrels of beer in 2015.
Earlier this year, Breckenridge left its Denver digs for a 12-acre brewery and restaurant in Littleton . The deal includes the new brewery and the Farm House restaurant, as well as the original brewpub and innovation center in the town of Breckenridge.
Belgium-based AB InBev will not have a stake in the cluster of restaurants and brewpubs owned and operated by Breckenridge-Wynkoop, including Ale House at Amato's, Breckenridge Ale House, Breckenridge Colorado Craft, the Cherry Cricket, Mainline, Phantom Canyon Brewing Co. and Wynkoop Brewing Co., officials said.
The 25-year-old Breckenridge Brewery is Colorado's sixth-largest craft brewer by barrels produced, according to Brewers Association data.
Having AB InBev in its corner will help Breckenridge continue along its current growth trajectory and expand deeper within the regions it already serves, director of sales George O'Neill said. The new Littleton brewery has the capacity for 110,000 barrels a year.
With Breckenridge, AB InBev is continuing a regional acquisition strategy deployed by conglomerates such as MillerCoors to counter declining light lager sales. The larger players have turned an eye to the craft-beer industry, which has been barreling ahead and racking up double-digit annual sales growth in recent years.
AB InBev appears focused on well-known, middle-tier breweries that have deep footprints in their respective regions, said Kyle Leingang, an associate at Dorsey & Whitney LLP who specializes in craft brewing and mergers and acquisitions.
"They haven't duplicated a state yet," he said.
Leingang hasn't been privy to the terms of the Breckenridge deal, but said he wouldn't be surprised if it includes an "earn-out" clause in which the current owners receive milestone payments for a period of three to five years.
Some of the recent craft brewery acquisitions — Constellation Brands' $1 billion buyout of Ballast Point excluded — have carried a valuation of roughly $1,000 per barrel, he said.
By that estimate, Breckenridge's 2015 production would put its price in the $70 million range.
AB InBev's craft beer buyouts since 2011 have included Chicago-based Goose Island for $38.8 million, Blue Point in New York for $24 million, Oregon-based 10 Barrel Brewing for an estimated $50 million, Golden Road Brewing in California for an undisclosed sum, and Elysian in Seattle for an estimated $60 million.
And just within the past week, AB InBev announced plans to acquire Four Peaks Brewery in Arizona and Camden Town Brewery in London.
All the smaller deals are coming as AB InBev is awaiting the completion of a proposed $107 billion acquisition of SABMiller, which owns Chicago-based MillerCoors. Under the terms of that deal, Denver-based Molson Coors announced plans to pay $12 billion for the 58 percent of MillerCoors it did not already own.
"Every brewery business has their right and privilege to make inroads into keeping up," said Julia Herz, craft beer program director for the Boulder-based Brewers Association. "But also what's important is diversity in the marketplace. I'm wanting to continue to ensure that even the smallest of breweries that produce world-class beers can get on the liquor store shelves or the restaurant menu."
The Breckenridge announcement comes just days after Reuters reported that Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing Co. was looking for a buyer. Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association, told The Denver Post last week that a sale not only might trigger antitrust concerns but also could risk employee-owned New Belgium's credibility among its loyal, longtime consumers.
Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont, which is employee-owned, like New Belgium and Odell Brewing, has long trumpeted its plan to retain its independence — the brewery even sells T-shirts that bear the phrase "righteously independent."
"Our whole mission is to change the world by brewing great beer," Left Hand co-founder and CEO Eric Wallace said. "We didn't start our brewery to make money — because 22 years ago when we started, it was inconceivable you were going to get rich brewing beer."
Wallace said he is concerned about deeper pushes by AB InBev and others large players into the market. AB InBev, with upwards of $47 billion in revenue in 2014, can put its weight behind deep discounting deals and heavy incentives for distributors, he said.
The acquisition could heighten local craft brewers' anxiety about AB InBev's distribution acquisitions in Colorado and related incentive programs that benefit AB InBev's beer portfolio.
Earlier this year, it appeared that Breckenridge would remain independent.
When craft breweries sell to big beer, "I think there is some serious authenticity that is lost, and that the brand loses," brewery director Todd Usry said in an interview with The Post. "We're not corporate. We are entrepreneurial and individual."
Usry on Tuesday said The High End runs an authentic business and that Breckenridge will be able to maintain its autonomy.
"We're not getting rid of anybody, not changing recipes, we're not changing ingredients," he said. "There's going to be some doubters, for sure, but I am a full believer. I am looking forward to the challenge to prove to all those folks that we're not going to change."
Alicia Wallace: 303-954-1939, [email protected] or @aliciawallace
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