USA, MS: New owners have big plans for Lazy Magnolia Brewing

The new owners of Lazy Magnolia Brewing, the first packaging brewery in Mississippi since Prohibition, have big plans for the beer maker and already have put millions into expanding the plant to increase production, The Clarion-Ledger reported on August 13.

Utah-based investors Ryan Bowen and Jason Anderson bought Lazy Magnolia earlier this year for an undisclosed amount from founders Mark and Leslie Henderson.

Bowen owns or has investments in more than 40 companies, according to his social media posts. He founded Pure Water Solutions which he sold last year for an undisclosed amount.

“We’re keeping the team from the oldest to the newest, and the Lazy Magnolia name is not going anywhere,” said Christopher Maros, the new general manager. “We’re looking forward to launching new products and diversification of our portfolio.”

The Hendersons turned their home-brewing hobby into a business in Kiln, a historic community in Hancock County known as the Moonshine Capital of the World for its “high quality and ready availability of this whiskey,” according to the local Historical Society.

The Hendersons, both engineers, grew their brewing and packaging business over nearly a decade, and are consulting with the new owners on “everything from compliance to vendors and customer relations,” Mark Henderson said in an email. He is chief technology officer at Ocean Aero, which develops autonomous vehicles for maritime exploration, and Leslie Henderson works in plant operations at the SABIC Innovative Plastics plant in Hancock County.

Lazy Magnolia produces several beers year-round as well as seasonal varieties and special limited releases. The most popular beer is the award-winning Southern Pecan, an ale touted as the first to be brewed with roasted pecans.

Maros said Bowen and Anderson have added $2 million for two new rotary can fillers capable of producing 56,000 cans in an 8-hour shift. “We are currently running two eight-hour shifts making our production day running from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., five days a week. We will be ramping up to include a third shift in the near future and eventually be running 24/7.”

The owners also purchased an upgraded bottle filler that is capable of 40,000 bottles in a shift.

More investments are planned in phases, Maros said, including the addition of all new bottle packaging equipment “to allow us to run more efficiently,” and the addition of all new can packaging equipment that will allow for a variety of can packaging configurations. “

Phase 4 will include a another standalone, higher speed can line capable of 250 cans per minute or 120,000 cans in an eight-hour shift along with all new can packaging equipment with multiple different package variations,” he said.

Those are the kinds of upgrades the Hendersons looked to investors to fund as they faced the challenge of growing their business in the wake of Covid. The couple responded to the pandemic slowdown by producing hand sanitizer at the brewery while seeking new customers to keep their production lines running.

“In addition to our own brands we were contract brewing for some customers that had significant volumes,” Mark Henderson said. “We needed to able to support them and their growth plans, and we needed to scale up the operation to get the economy of scale necessary to drive margins.”

He said the biggest obstacle to Lazy Magnolia’s viability had always been capital.

“Access to capital in Mississippi has always been a struggle," he said. "Banks have their purpose, but they aren’t the lender of first resort.

"There are too few private equity groups working in the state to really support a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem. Finally, most of our rich people are generally land rich and cash poor, which makes it difficult to raise money at the venture capital level. That only leaves boot-straps, and although we might be an example where that was successful, it is more difficult than it has to be.”

Henderson said the growth in craft beer consumption and production in Mississippi since Lazy Magnolia opened has soared “and I like to think that maybe we had something to do with it.”

When Lazy Magnolia was getting started, Mark Henderson said craft beer consumption in Mississippi was 3% of total beer and today it is closer to 10%. There were no breweries in the state and today there are nearly a dozen. Also, the state imported 100% of all beer consumed and 10 years later Mississippi produced more than 3% of its beer, he said. And the economic impact of craft beer went from nearly zero to more than $50 million annually.

“All of that said, I am most proud of the relationships that we built, of the people that we helped and the causes that we helped support,” Henderson said. “When we got the right to open a tap room, we started First Fridays, and always had a charitable partner that we worked with to promote Mississippi collectively.”

Maros said the new owners plan to continue the First Friday events at The Porch, which serves as a cafe, the brewery’s retail store and sponsorships that Lazy Magnolia supports, while ramping up production and staffing.

Lazy Magnolia will roll out a new beer in a couple of months, Maros said. Endless Summer will be a Belgian wheat style beer with refreshing flavoring. “It’s a summer-type beer with our own twist to it,” he said.

Other new products in the works could include water, flavored seltzer, energy drinks or another kind of beverage that’s in demand, he said.

Maros called brewmaster Will Brown “a genius” at creating beers. Brown has been with Lazy Magnolia since it opened.

Maros said Lazy Magnolia has a staff of about 25 for its two shifts with plans to ramp up the crew to 35 or 40 within a year.

“Soon it will be going to three shifts and by next year it will be 24/7,” he said. “We are looking to triple our output within the next year.”

Lazy Magnolia beer is sold in 40 states and could be nationwide soon. “Especially with the new products we will be putting out,” Maros said.

The brewery, which cans and packages products for out-of-state clients, including Richard’s Rainwater of Texas, is looking for more customers.

“We’ll be way ahead of our fellow co-packers based on the packaging variations that we’ll be able to offer and multiple different can sizes,” he said.

Maros said the new owners “are willing to put in the money to make it work and want to see the brand grow along with other trademark brands we going to be putting out in the future.”

14 August, 2023