Molson Coors has announced plans to buy Atwater Brewery, a Detroit-based regional craft brewer.
Atwater, founded in 1997, produces German-style lagers and light ales, including Dirty Blonde and Vanilla Java Porter. Its award-winning products include Better Life Choices, an American IPA that was named a top-10 IPA by Beer Connoisseur magazine, and Decadent Dark Chocolate, which won bronze in the World Beer Cup.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Atwater will be brought into Tenth and Blake Beer Co., Molson Coors’ craft unit, which include Leinenkugel’s and several others. The Atwater business will continue to be run by owner Mark Rieth and the current management team. Rieth told the Detroit News that it has not been decided whether there will be any changes to where or how Atwater products are brewed.
Tenth and Blake showed volume growth of 16% last year, according to Molson Coors. The company as a whole, on the other hand, showed a net sales drop of 2% in 2018 (the last full year available) over 2017. That mirrors the situation in the beer industry as a whole, where craft beer sales have been growing for decades while most mainstream beers languish or decline.
