E-Malt.com News article: United States: Former Coors plant in Memphis to be acquired by craft brewer Yuengling

D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc., one of the fastest-growing US beer makers, is close to acquiring a former Coors plant in Memphis, Tennessee, to help the company meet rising demand and increase distribution beyond the eastern US, The Wall Street Journal reported on October, 15.

Yuengling, the oldest brewer in the US and the seventh-largest beer supplier by sales volume, has signed a letter of intent to buy the Memphis facility from Hardy Bottling Co., which purchased it from Molson Coors Brewing Co. in 2006.

By acquiring the facility Yuengling could expand distribution beyond its current 13 states in the eastern US.

"Memphis is an ideal location," said David Casinelli, chief operating officer of Yuengling. "At some point we're going to run out of room" at its existing plants in Pennsylvania and Florida.”

Mr. Casinelli said the closely-held company hopes to close the deal in the next few weeks.

Yuengling, a household name in such states as Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, has long taken a conservative approach to growth. Its brands' cult-like appeal have prompted consumers from as far as California and Washington to send letters and place phone calls urging executives to expand distribution.

The company said in a statement on October, 14 that it doesn't have a "definitive timetable" to introduce its beers to additional states. Executives said in an interview earlier this week that they likely would add at least one new state in the second half of next year, and that Ohio was a possibility.

Yuengling, founded in 1829 and owned by fifth-generation brewer Dick Yuengling, sells its beers in 13 states and Washington, D.C., and accounts for about 1% of the U.S. beer market, which is dominated by AB InBev NV and MillerCoors LLC. Yuengling's sales volume rose about 12% last year to 2 million barrels, according to industry newsletter Beer Marketer's Insights.

The company operates two breweries in Pottsville and one in Tampa, Fla. It bought a former Stroh's brewery in Tampa in 1999 that helped it expand into the southeastern U.S.

The Memphis facility opened as a Schlitz beer plant in the 1970s.


15 October, 2010