The billionaire proprietor of the yogurt firm Chobani stated on Friday that he had acquired Anchor Brewing Firm, the San Francisco brewer that went out of enterprise final yr after 127 years.
Hamdi Ulukaya, who can be Chobani’s chief government, stated a video posted on social media that he regarded ahead to bringing Anchor Brewing “again to life.” The value Mr. Ulukaya paid to amass the brewing firm’s property from a liquidator was not disclosed.
The corporate, stated to be America’s oldest craft brewer, introduced it was shutting down in July 2023, citing the consequences of the pandemic, inflation and a extremely aggressive beer market.
Sam Singer, a spokesman for Anchor, stated on Friday that the corporate was “very happy” concerning the acquisition.
“He’s virtually an ideal match,” Mr. Singer stated of Mr. Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant who, since founding Chobani in 2005, has helped carry Greek yogurt into the American mainstream.
“We imagine that he may have that very same magic contact in taking a historic brewery and reinvigorating it for future San Franciscans,” he stated.
Anchor’s gross sales had been declining since 2016, and in 2017, the corporate was acquired for round $85 million by the Japanese beer large Sapporo. The pandemic was notably disruptive, Mr. Singer stated final yr, noting that 70 % of Anchor’s beers had been offered in eating places and bars. Efforts to adapt, together with a rebranding marketing campaign and a shift to bottling and canning extra of its beers to promote in grocery shops, “couldn’t make up for the numerous lack of gross sales,” he stated.
The corporate’s unionized staff pitched shopping for the brewer and working it as a co-op to maintain it in enterprise.
The announcement of the acquisition was cheered by Mayor London Breed of San Francisco, whereas critics questioned whether or not the corporate would be capable of preserve its function as a neighborhood staple below new possession.
Esther Mobley, a senior wine critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, wrote that Anchor’s signature beer, Steam, was “an expression of the town’s uniquely quirky local weather.”
This can be a growing story.
