End of an era: New Belgium employees OK brewery's sale to international conglomerate

Pat Ferrier | Fort Collins Coloradoan

New Belgium Brewing Co. is no longer employee owned and can no longer be considered an independent craft brewer.

Workers at the nearly 30-year-old brewery approved the sale to Lion Little World Beverages of Australia in voting over the past few weeks, making it part of Kirin International Holdings, a Japanese beverage giant.

Voting results were finalized around 2 p.m. Tuesday, according to Leah Pilcer, New Belgium spokeswoman.

New Belgium has declined to release the number of employees who voted or a breakdown on how they voted.

The approval clears the way for the sale to close by the end of the year, Pilcer said. Terms of the deal have not been announced.

Lion Little World Beverages is a global craft arm of Lion, an Australian beverage and food company that is a subsidiary of Kirin.

MORE: Human rights groups tell New Belgium to reject sale over links to Myanmar

"This result moves us one step closer towards New Belgium Brewing officially joining Lion Little World Beverages," New Belgium CEO Steve Fechheimer said in a statement. "We're excited about the next chapter for NBB and continuing to prove business can be a force for good."

The sale also means a windfall for more than 300 employees who will receive "$100,000 of retirement money, with some receiving significantly greater amounts," according to New Belgium co-founder Kim Jordan.

Roughly 700 people are employed at New Belgium, which has breweries in Fort Collins and Asheville, North Carolina.

The Fort Collins brewery was buzzing and upbeat Tuesday afternoon, within an hour of the vote result going public. Patrons and employees in New Belgium gear milled around. No employees were willing to speak with the Coloradoan about the vote finalizing Tuesday.

► Opinion: New Belgium has left an imprint on Fort Collins

New Belgium started out of the basement of Jordan and her then-husband Jeff Lebesch's Fort Collins home in 1991. It was Fort Collins' fourth brewery. Ahead of the sale, it is the fourth largest craft brewer in the country.

The independent Craft Brewers Association uses three criteria to define its membership. Among them is being independently owned, meaning less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled by a beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.

The sale comes at a critical time for New Belgium and the industry. Industry watchers say the sale was probably inevitable, the only question was when and to whom.

New Belgium invested heavily in its Asheville expansion and sold the company to its employees just as craft brewing exploded throughout the U.S. and smaller craft brewers began stealing market share.

"There were whispers in the industry the timing of all three couldn't have been worse," said Mat Dinsmore, owner of Wilbur's Total Beverage in Fort Collins. "They didn't really have a choice."

The sale puts New Belgium on a strong growth trajectory, opening up new international markets and an established international distribution network. But the brewery known for its independence and quirkiness now could lose the ability to drive its own destiny as part of a large conglomerate.

"Time will tell how much autonomy they will have," Dinsmore said.

The employee vote came as human rights organizations claimed Kirin has ties to the Myanmar (formerly Burma) government responsible for alleged genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Kirin owns a stake in Myanmar Brewing with Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited, or MEHL, a military conglomerate led by commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who is accused of leading military-backed ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims.

► The history of New Belgium

The purchase gives Kirin a toehold into the U.S. market. It is Lion Little's first foray into craft beer in the United States, but Kirin owns 25% of Brooklyn Brewery in New York.

“We are grateful to have the trust of New Belgium employees as we move forward to deal close," Lion Little World Beverage Managing Director Matt Tapper said in a statement Tuesday. "New Belgium has great people, great brands and a great company. I can’t wait to get started.”

The sale is also bittersweet for the city that has taken pride in being the birthplace of Fat Tire as New Belgium's size and reputation grew.

"They are the shining stars" of Fort Collins' craft culture, Dinsmore said. "They are still going to be engaged; this is still their home. It may not feel the same but ... they will continue to be one of the largest private employers in the community and still produce a world-class product," he said.

"It's like watching the kids graduate high school and go on to college ... but they'll always be your baby."

► New Belgium through the years

Lion Little employs about 4,000 people in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Asia and the U.S.

Kirin has 30,000 employees and brews 121 different beers, but few have gained widespread consumption in the U.S., Dinsmore said.

Internationally, Kirin beers are "ginormous," he said. Kirin beers, including Kirin Ichiban and Lion Stout, are available at some local liquor stores and sushi restaurants.

Coloradoan reporter Erin Udell contributed to this report.

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Pat Ferrier is a senior reporter covering business, health care and growth issues in Northern Colorado.