Under the terms of their renegotiated commercial agreement, A-B said it would pay as much as $24.50 per share to acquire CBA by August 23, 2019. In 2016, A-B restructured its distribution and contract brewing arrangement with CBA, building a framework for a buyout in the process. It purchased eight more craft beer companies over the next five years and officially established a “high end” division tasked with selling and promoting more expensive brews.

Realizing it would need more than one small brewery to compete in the fast-growing craft beer segment, A-B went on a buying spree. craft beer more than doubled, to about 26 million barrels in 2018, according to industry trade group the Brewers Association. The 2011 Goose Island acquisition would go on to define the most recent decade in brewing, setting off a wave of craft brewery transactions over the next 8 1/2 years. CBA actually owned 42 percent of Goose Island at the time, and agreed to sell its stake to A-B for $16.3 million in cash. Two years later, Kona Brewing, now CBA’s largest and most important individual brand, joined the publicly-traded rollup after a brewing and distribution partnership between the two companies proved successful.Īround the same time, executives at A-B began witnessing the consumer shift toward craft beer – sales grew 13% in 2011 - and the brewing giant purchased Chicago’s Goose Island for $38.8 million. That’s when Widmer and Redhook sold minority stakes to A-B in exchange for guaranteed access to the brewing giant’s vast network of beer wholesalers across the country.Īt the time, it gave Widmer and Redhook an opportunity to reach new customers throughout the U.S., but it also laid the groundwork for A-B’s eventual acquisition 25 years later.Ĭraft Brew Alliance was formed in 2008 Craft Brew AllianceĬBA was officially formed in July 2008 via the merger of Redhook and Widmer (the same year InBev acquired A-B). Once finalized, CBA’s NASDAQ ticker “BREW” would also be delisted, and the company that once traded under the “HOOK” symbol will officially become part of “BUD.”īut to fully understand how the world’s largest beer company could finally come to wholly-own some of the world’s most iconic beer labels – two of which are more than three decades old and helped create the craft beer category we know today – you’ve got to travel back to 1994. Meanwhile, A-B, via its “Brewers Collective” division, already owns 10 Barrel Brewing Co., Blue Point Brewing Company, Breckenridge Brewery, Devils Backbone Brewing Company, Elysian Brewing Company, Four Peaks Brewing Co., Golden Road Brewing, Goose Island Beer Company, Karbach Brewing Co., Platform Beer, Veza Sur Brewing Co., Virtue Cider, and Wicked Weed Brewing.Ĭollectively, those 21 different brands account for more than 2 million barrels of craft beer, or roughly 1% of all beer shipped by domestic brewers in 2018 (166 million barrels).

Who owns devils backbone beer