Cannabis Company Tilray to Acquire 8 Beer Brands from Anheuser-Busch
Tilray Brands has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire eight beer and beverage brands from Anheuser-Busch, paying "a price equal to $85 million in cash," according to an 8-K filing cited by Forbes.
The Leamington, Ontario-based “cannabis-lifestyle” and CPG company will acquire Shock Top, Breckenridge Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Co., 10 Barrel Brewing Co., Redhook Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Square Mile Cider Co. and HiBall Energy — and includes all current employees, breweries and brewpubs associated with those brands. The transaction will be paid in cash and is expected to close in 2023, according to a news release from the Canadian company.
Tilray’s chairman and CEO is an old food industry veteran, Irwin Simon, who founded Hain Celestial Group in 1993 and led the company for 25 years. Before Tilray, he transformed Aphria Inc. into a profitable global cannabis company. He’s also the executive chairman of Whole Earth Brands.
Tilray further adds that the expected sales volume of the acquisition will push it to the fifth largest craft beer business in the U.S. when combined with current businesses SweetWater Brewing Co., Montauk Brewing Co., Alpine Beer Co. and Green Flash Brewing Co. Tilray also owns Breckenridge Distillery. It is projected that Tilray will generate craft beer pro forma revenue of $250 million, and the new brands will help expand the company’s distribution footprint.
It will add four production facilities, located in: Portland and Bend, Ore., Littleton, Colo., and Patchogue, N.Y.; and it will also add eight brewpub locations as well.
