New Belgium Brewing, maker of Fat Tire, sold to Australian company
New Belgium Brewing, maker of craft beers including Fat Tire, on Tuesday announced that the employee-owned company is selling to Australian-based Lion Little World Beverages.
New Belgium, based in Fort Collins, Colo., is the fourth-largest craft brewer in the U.S., behind Yuengling, Boston Beer and Sierra Nevada, according to the Brewers Association.
The cash sale, for an undisclosed amount, is expected to finalize by the end of the year, pending approval by employee stock owners.
More than 300 of New Belgium’s employee-owners will each receive more than $100,000 in retirement money through the deal, “with some receiving significantly greater amounts,” New Belgium founder Kim Jordan wrote in a letter on Tuesday.
According to New Belgium CEO Steve Fechheimer, the brewery employs nearly 700 people at breweries in Fort Collins, Denver and Asheville, N.C., and across the country on its sales team.
None of those employees will be laid off as part of the sale, and the taprooms and breweries will remain open, Fechheimer said. He and his “leadership team” will stay in their positions as well.
“We will no longer be employee-owned, and it would be easy to see that as a drawback,” Jordan wrote in her letter. “But here’s another way to look at it … Over the life of our (employee stock ownership plan), including this transaction, the total amount paid to current and former employees will be nearly $190 million. We will have helped a significant number of people realize the upside of having equity in something, being a part of the American Dream!”
Jordan and her ex-husband, Jeff Lebesch, took out a second mortgage to start New Belgium Brewing in their Fort Collins basement in 1991. While Lebesch focused on making beer, Jordan, a social worker by training, applied her work background and Quaker schooling to running the business. She eventually sold the entire company to employees.
Matt Tapper, managing director of Lion Little World Beverages, a subsidiary of Japanese company Kirin Holdings Company Limited, told the Denver Post that New Belgium’s “ethos to be a force for good” is something his company wants to continue moving forward.
In nearly 30 years in business in Fort Collins, New Belgium has grown to be one of the country’s largest craft beer businesses while also becoming 100% employee-owned and receiving B-Corporation status, which means the business “meet(s) the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose,” according to the B Corps website.
Tapper said his company will uphold that mission while growing the New Belgium brand.
Lion Little World is now the largest brewer in Australia and the largest alcoholic beverage company in New Zealand. Its brands include Boag’s, Malt Shovel and its original Little Creatures microbrewery.
New Belgium was first reported to be on the lookout for a buyer in 2015, the same year that Colorado’s Breckenridge Brewery sold to Anheuser-Busch InBev. But by 2017, New Belgium was leading a group effort to rescue another longtime craft brewer, San Francisco’s Magnolia Brewing, out of bankruptcy in a deal for $2.7 million.
Boulder Beer Company, the state’s oldest craft brewery, last month announced plans to downsize, end distribution and lay off more than a third of its workforce.
Also in October, Molson Coors announced that the company is closing its Denver office, moving its headquarters to Chicago and laying off 500 employees internationally. While the company will still operate the Coors brewery in Golden, the move means Colorado has lost one of its most iconic, long-running brands — and with it, a big part of the state’s corporate identity.