E-Malt.com News article: US: Boston Beer Company expanding is loan program to include microbreweries and home brewers across the country

Boston Beer Company is launching an unusual microloan program for start-ups in the beverage and food industries, Mass.Market reported on April, 5.

The company is expanding its “Brewing the American Dream” loan program and making it available to microbreweries and home brewers across the country.

The South Boston-based company has unveiled plans to distribute at least $100,000 to the craft brewing industry in 2011. The company works with Accion USA, a nonprofit organization in Charlestown, to process the loans. Small craft brewers will be eligible for loans ranging from $500 to $25,000 for a variety of business expansion purposes, such as buying equipment or launching marketing campaigns.

Boston Beer chairman Jim Koch started the program in 2008 as a way to help entrepreneurs in food and beverage industries in New England get their ideas off the ground. So far, the initiative has loaned about $540,000 to more than 60 businesses, primarily in New England, with a goal of reaching $1 million by the end of this year. As the loan funds are paid back, they’re put into a loan pool to help fund future loans.

Boston Beer recently expanded the geographic range of the broader microloan program to include Lehigh Valley, Pa., and Ohio (where Boston Beer’s two main breweries are located). Also, as part of its announcement that it would offer microloans to brewers across the country, Boston Beer said it has begun offering the loans to food-oriented and other hospitality-related entrepreneurs in New York City.

Koch famously started brewing Sam Adams in his kitchen in 1984 and, like other entrepreneurs, found it tough to get financing at the start. Now that Boston Beer is the biggest craft brewer in the country, Koch wants to help others in his industry get their products out of their kitchens and into the stores and restaurants where they belong.


06 April, 2011