E-Malt.com News article: USA, TX: Alamo Beer Co. wighing sale of its brewery in San Antonio

Another San Antonio craft-beer company may be on the verge of tapping out, San Antonio Current reported on September 6.

Faced with flat sales, Alamo Beer Co. owner Eugene Simor told the Express-News that he's weighing whether to unload all or part of the business or sell its brewery in the hot Dignowity Hill area east of downtown.

A recent sales listing for 2 acres of Alamo Beer's property at 202 Lamar St. notes that it "can be sold individually or in conjunction with Alamo Brewery complex including including Brewery, Beer Hall and Beer Garden."

“The real estate value has escalated much faster than the distribution side of business,” Simor told the Express-News. “We are exploring options for other uses on the prime site next to downtown, the Hays Street Bridge and much more development.”

Simor, who founded Alamo Beer in 1997, told the daily he's also scouting for investors who can help reorganize the company and get it back on a growth trajectory.

Even though Alamo Beer's 40,000-barrel-a-year capacity makes it San Antonio's largest brewery, Simor told the daily it's only producing 7,600 barrels annually.

The business tried to increase production through a deal last fall to brew suds for fellow San Antonio craft brand Viva Beer. It also acquired Austin-based ShotGun Seltzer and lined up contracts to package other beverages.

However, a spate of recent Texas brewery closures suggest the operating environment is tough. San Antonio's award-winning Second Pitch Beer Co. abruptly shut down in March, and Dallas' widely distributed Deep Ellum Brewing Co. closed its brewhouse and taproom early this summer.

To be sure, Simor telegraphed Alamo Beer's difficult operating environment in a February interview with the Current.

At that time, Simor said the brewery's property taxes had doubled while its ingredient costs continued to escalate. Further complicating things, the interest rate doubled on a loan Simor had obtained for the business.
Those financial pressures piled up as the craft-beer industry grappled with changing tastes. In 2023, roughly 25% of consumers said they were buying less craft beer, according to a Harris Poll. Many of those cutting back said they were drinking wine, spirits, flavored malt beverages and hard seltzers instead.

"You add all this up and it is making it very, very difficult for craft brewers," Simor told the Current in February.


06 September, 2024