USA, NC: Highland Brewing set to expand

A major expansion is in the works at Asheville’s Highland Brewing Co., a project that will increase the brewery’s production by more than 50 percent, and eventually much more. To fund it, Highland is exploring issuing $6.5 million in industrial development revenue bonds, Asheville Citizen-Times reported on March 6.

A team from Highland will meet on March 10 with the Buncombe County Industrial Facilities and Pollution Control Authority to discuss the expansion, brewery founder and president Oscar Wong said. “It’s really just the first step,” toward possibly issuing bonds, he said.

But the expansion will happen and soon.

“It would begin this year and be complete by next year,” he said. “We are on a fast track.”

Highland is looking to add equipment including another bottling machine, and make improvements on its building.

Highland, which opened in 1994 as the city’s first craft brewery, currently makes about 38,000 barrels of beer annually for sale in nine states. With its expansion, that production would jump to 60-65,000 barrels.

“And by adding tanks, we could ramp it up to 100,000 barrels down the road in our current location,” Wong said.

If Highland does fund its project with bonds, they would be sold to investors to raise money for expansion, said Michael Frue, senior staff attorney for Buncombe County.

He said the company has not provided the county with details about its plan though he expects some of those details to come out at the meeting on March 10. County commissioners would have to hold a public hearing on the bonds. The Local Government Commission in Raleigh would also have to sign off, Frue said.

07 March, 2014