E-Malt.com News article: Belgium & USA: Breweries Duvel Moortgat and Firestone Walker Brewing Co. to combine operations

Duvel Moortgat and Firestone Walker Brewing Co. will combine their U.S. operations, USA Today reported on July 17.

“Many breweries team up to make collaboration beers, but Duvel Moortgat and Firestone Walker Brewing are making a full-scale, long-term collaboration by combining, but not integrating their organizations,” Duvel Moortgat USA president Simon Thorpe said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

Paso Robles-based Firestone Walker Brewing will continue to make its own beers and operate independently under founders David Walker and Adam Firestone. The companies signed an agreement earlier this week and the transaction is expected to close later this year. Both firms are privately-owned; no financial details were disclosed.

"The Firestone Walker Brewing and Duvel Moortgat families have combined forces to broaden their capacity and scope as brewers," said Duvel Moortgat and Firestone Walker Brewing in a joint statement. "Long admirers of each other's beers, culture and breweries, the two teams saw the perfect fit for an alliance. The partnership will allow Firestone Walker Brewing to develop our capacity across the US in a conservative and thoughtful way by consummating a lifelong tie with this family-owned international craft brewer, who continues their commitment to participating in the American Craft Revolution."

This is the latest in several U.S. craft brewery acquisitions for Duvel Moortgat. The Belgian beer conglomerate acquired Boulevard Brewing Co. based in Kansas City and Brewery Ommegang from Cooperstown.

Duvel Moortgat will help Firestone Walker Brewing - the 16th largest craft brewery in the U.S., according to the Brewers Association - as it expands its production and distribution. "The most important thing that we can do for Firestone Walker Brewing is to help David and Adam manage the exponential growth that their team and their brewery is experiencing right now by providing financial and production capacity to support them," said Duvel Moortgat USA president Simon Thorpe in a statement accompanying the release.

“Duvel Moortgat, Boulevard Brewing, Brewery Ommegang and Firestone Walker Brewing will be able to collaborate at their various locations in the U.S.,” said Michel Moortgat, the CEO of Duvel Moortgat. "We share the same values; have a great mutual respect for each other's achievements and a deeply-held belief in exceptional quality as a platform for long-term success," Moortgat said. "Bringing Firestone Walker Brewing together with Boulevard Brewing, Brewery Ommegang, Duvel Moortgat and the other craft breweries in our family creates a stronger platform in the USA for us both."

In a post on the Firestone Walker Brewing’s web site, the joint founders said that "Duval Moortgat’s investment is an elegant solution that will enable us to grow within a framework that meets our standards — all without losing focus on the trains that got us here."

Well-respected Firestone Walker Brewing has increased production and distribution. David Walker said in an email that "we have our hands full in the West and pick our markets outside the West carefully. Our new partnership will help us visualize the future with a national footprint one day but that is still a long way off. Sales have been brisk for us the last few years."


22 July, 2015