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We’re going to see more kinds of things like this…Breweries like Maryland’s DuClaw Brewing looking to sell or at least seek out new equity partners.
The American craft beer industry is aging and it’s no longer the vital young kid it once was.
And DuClaw, a family owned operation which has been brewing for 21 years has announced that they are exploring new ownership possibilities or at least taking on a new equity partner.
In today’s increasingly competitive craft beer climate, more breweries are learning that it takes capital to survive especially middle-aged breweries like DuClaw who’ve been brewing since 1996.
In the last five years DuClaw has upped their production significantly according to Biz Journal. They produced 35,000 barrels of beer in 2016, up from a mere 5,800 in 2011, and have been expanding their distribution footprint which according to Brewbound now includes 14 states and Washington, DC.
But expanding the brewery’s network, which now includes a new 63,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility and growing a brand that can compete takes money, and it appear that DuClaw is now at a crossroads.
Last Thursday, DuClaw announced that they’d retained the investment banking firm Equity Partners HG to help identify an investor or buyer for the company.
So yes, DuClaw Brewing is on the market, and we’ll just have to see what happens…but one thing’s for sure, as craft beer enters its ‘middle-ages’ we’re going to more and more of these kinds of plays.
