Posted on Monday, February 11, 2008 - 3:37 am:

quote:

Monroe's Huber Brewing sold--Canadian buyer agrees to buy beer and soda brands, plans to add workers

By TOM DAYKIN
tdaykin@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Sept. 19, 2006

Joseph Huber Brewing Co., with Wisconsin roots dating back over 160 years, is being sold to a Canadian company that plans to expand the brewery and hire more workers.

Mountain Crest Brewing Co., based in Calgary, Alberta, has agreed to buy the Monroe brewery, as well as some of Huber Brewing's beer and soda brands, for an undisclosed price, Huber Brewing President Robert Nichols said Tuesday. The sale is expected to close by Oct. 1.

Along with the brewery, Mountain Crest is acquiring the Huber, Rhinelander and Wisconsin Club beer brands, and the Blumers soda brands, Nichols said.

A newly formed company, Berghoff Brewing Co., will own Huber's Berghoff beer brands, said Nichols, who will be Berghoff Brewing president.

The Berghoff brands account for around 30% of Huber Brewing's annual beverage production, Nichols said. Berghoff Brewing will contract with Mountain Crest to continue brewing the Berghoff brands at the Monroe facility.

The transaction allows Berghoff Brewing to focus on the Berghoff lineup of craft beers, which has been enjoying double-digit sales growth. The Berghoff lineup has expanded in recent years, with such new brands as Berghoff Pale Ale and Berghoff Solstice Wit Beer.

Nationally, the craft beer segment, which includes such Wisconsin brands as New Glarus, Leinenkugel, Sprecher and Lakefront, recorded an 11% sales volume increase during the first half of 2006, according to the Brewers Association, trade group for the craft brewing industry. That comes on top of a 9% sales increase in 2005.

Meanwhile, Mountain Crest Brewing gains ownership of a brewery where it can increase production to help continue its sales growth in Canada, said Ravinder Minhas, Mountain Crest president. His company hired Huber Brewing in 2003 to produce the Mountain Crest brands and helped finance new canning equipment needed to handle that production increase.

Mountain Crest has shaken up the Canadian brewing industry by aggressively underselling that country's two dominant players, Molson Inc. and Labatt Breweries of Canada Inc. The company's sales volume so far this year is up 30% to 40% compared to the same period in 2005, he said.

"We seem to be kicking butt at it," Minhas said.

Mountain Crest also plans to eventually increase production of its U.S. brand, known as Mountain Creek, Minhas said. He said Mountain Crest will be hiring more employees in Monroe but declined to estimate how many new jobs will be created.

Huber Brewing now has around 70 employees, with around 10 sales and marketing employees splitting off to join Berghoff Brewing, Nichols said.

Huber Brewing this year will produce around 235,000 barrels of beer and soda, Nichols said. In 2004, Huber added a second shift with 20 new jobs to handle the growing production contract with Mountain Crest.

The predecessor to Huber Brewing was founded in 1845, three years before Wisconsin became a state. It was known as Blumer Brewery until 1947, when the name was changed to Huber Brewing after a buyout by Joseph Huber and other employees.

Huber Brewing bills itself as the Midwest's oldest continually operating brewery. It is currently owned by the Weinstein family, which also owns Madison-based General Beverage Sales Co. and General Beer Distributors. Nichols, along with Weinstein family members, will have ownership interests in Berghoff Brewing.

The upcoming ownership change isn't expected to have a big impact on Berghoff and Huber drinkers in Monroe, said Tyler Soukup, co-owner of Baumgartner's Cheese Store and Tavern, a long-time local establishment.

"It's not a big deal, as long as they don't jack up the prices," Soukup said.

[Don Rothenbach monitors the brew kettle last year at Joseph Huber Brewing Co. Inc. in Monroe. A Canadian company plans to expand the brewery and hire more workers.]

Relative Sizes
Miller Brewing Co.: 38.6 million barrels sold in 2005.

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co.: 340,000 barrels in 2005 making it the nation's fourth-largest craft brewer.

Joseph Huber Brewing Co.: 235,000 barrels of total beverage production expected in 2006. That includes soda, as well as beer produced for Mountain Crest Brewing Co. and other customers.

New Glarus Brewing Co.: About 44,000 barrels in 2005, with a 40% sales increase expected in 2006.


Brews News
Wisconsin's brewing industry has undergone change in recent years, including new owners for some of the state's long-time brewers. Those changes include Stevens Point Brewery, sold to Milwaukee investors Joe Martino and Jim Wiechmann; the former G. Heileman brewery in La Crosse, sold to a group of investors organized as City Brewing Co., and the sale of Miller Brewing Co. to South African Breweries Plc, which then changed its name to SABMiller Plc. Meanwhile, several craft brewers have been enjoying big sales increases, including New Glarus Brewing Co., New Glarus; Capital Brewery Co., Middleton, and Lakefront Brewing Inc., Milwaukee.

Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 2:52 pm:

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I drank a can of Goebel's once back in the '80s and it gave me a pretty good stomach ache.