Sapporo has lined up the purchase of San Diego’s Stone Brewing through its US division.
The transaction, for an undisclosed sum, will see Stone join 2017 acquisition Anchor Brewing Co – also based in California – in Sapporo USA’s operations in the country. The Japanese group will subsequently commence production of its namesake beer brand at Stone’s breweries in Escondido, California and Richmond in Virginia.
The move, announced earlier today, comes three months after Stone CEO Maria Stipp admitted a sale of the business was on her radar. A court case brought by the 26-year-old company against Molson Coors Beverage Co laid bare the damage done by the pandemic to the craft beer segment in the US.
“I have not to my knowledge seen any brewery experience such extreme losses,” Stipp said in court. “We tried price, a marketing campaign, incentives – everything we could think of to do to change from negative to positive and it’s not making a difference.” According to Inside Beer, asked if the legal dispute was prompting consideration of a divestment, Stipp replied in the affirmative.
In March, the court found in favour of Stone, which had claimed Molson Coors had infringed its namesake trademark in marketing for the Keystone brand.
Returning to today’s announcement and while Stone’s portfolio will continue to be produced at its facilities, Sapporo intends to invest in the pair, with a production target of 360,000 barrels per year in place by the end of 2024.
Sapporo is the top-selling Asian beer brand in the US, according to the group’s US unit.
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