So the official press release's headline posted by New Belgium reads:
New Belgium Brewing to join Lion Little World Beverages
I heard the news about New Belgium joining Lion Little World Beverages from a text earlier this afternoon from one of my fellow craft beer homies and honestly, I was floored by the initial news. It has been an amazing run crafting the Piano Keys Dark Chocolate and Vanilla Imperial Stout with this very progressive, employee-owned brewing company that I have always respected. The experience has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in my entire career as a beer enthusiast, journalist, and entrepreneur. The team has become like a family to me with so many endeavors we have accomplished to promote diversity, including symposiums, working alongside Fresh Fest, pouring at Hunahpu, and so many other projects during our collaboration. It's been a crazy, enlightening, and unforgettable ride.
So when I received the news that New Belgium was joining with this Australasian
*all of this is of dependent on our co-workers who also
are our shareholders, approving the conditions of this deal.
So what happens next? I say we wait to see what the employees have to say and how this will change New Belgium going forward.
In the meantime, I appreciate everyone who has reached out and continues to on my behalf and supported my collaboration with New Belgium. I do not know what the next step is with Piano Keys, but I am certain we will make the best of the opportunity at hand. Stay tuned everyone. The first run with this beer has been incredible. I trust the marathon will continue and hope the people who have made New Belgium what it is and has always been will ultimately win.
Peep Kim Jordan's letter direct from New Belgium's website:
Hey New Belgium fans!
You’ve probably read the big news that New Belgium
Brewing is set to join Lion Little World Beverages– the global craft beer
division of Australasian brewer, Lion, which is part of Kirin. I’m
assuming you’re here to learn more. If there are three things we’re known
for at New Belgium, it’s our dedication to innovation and excellence in beer,
our commitment to the culture and well-being of our coworkers and our crazy
enthusiasm for being a business role model. We were thinking about these
three things as we began to explore being a part of the Little World
family. Lion, Kirin, and the Little World team liked that about us, and
that paved the way for this decision.*
We are a Certified B Corp. Which means that we’re
dedicated to being a force for good as a business. Right away, the folks
at Little World told us that they were captivated by this model, and they are
asking us to retain our B Corp status. In addition, Lion announced last week
that they’ve made a pledge to be carbon neutral in their Australian and New
Zealand breweries starting in 2020. That’s exciting! And now we will be
accelerating our own journey toward Carbon Neutrality. Imagine a world
where publicly traded companies are dedicated to business as a force for good,
taking into account an array of stakeholders- their workers, their
shareholders, and the environment. This is a model for a big, compelling
future and is in line with the needs of our rapidly changing world.
We’ve been brewing eclectic Belgian style beers, aging
beer on wood, and generally pushing at the boundaries of beer innovation as
pioneers for almost three decades. Little World are brewers’ brewers.
They loved the sour beers from our renowned wood beer cellar! When we noticed
that they were really interested in the breadth of our beer portfolio, and they
began to share stories about their own innovation, we felt their commitment to
this ancient craft. They are as devoted as we are, and their resources in
R&D and innovation can only help to grow our own
capabilities.
We will no longer be employee owned and it would be easy
to see that as a drawback. But here’s another way to look at it. More
than 300 employees are receiving over $100,000 of retirement money with some
receiving significantly greater amounts. Over the life of our ESOP,
including this transaction, the total amount paid to current and former
employees will be nearly $190 million. We will have helped a significant
number of people realize the upside of having equity in something, being a part
of the American Dream! Little World is committed to strategies to broadly
share the wealth going forward, like profit sharing, best-in-class healthcare
and a generous family leave policy. Our on-site wellness clinic will carry
on. Continuing to practice the rest of what makes New Belgium so
cherished by its coworkers: a playful, loving vibe, a culture that encourages
learning and experimentation, and an entrepreneurial spirit, will be up to all
of us. We are more than up for that challenge and Little World will support us
all the way.
We all know the world of craft brewing is dynamic.
In the US, the number of breweries has nearly doubled in the last four years to
7,500. At New Belgium, we’ve needed to balance the cash demands of our
ESOP and selling shareholders, with the operational need for more capacity
(hence the brewery in Asheville) and the need to grow our brand by reaching
more beer drinkers with our brand message. These are a lot of competing
priorities and it has been difficult to do all of them as well as we’d like. As
we surveyed the landscape over the last several years, we found that options to
raise capital while being an independent brewer weren’t realistic for us. Some
of the most widely used options by craft brewers were going to compromise a lot
about what makes New Belgium great; environmental sustainability, and a rich
internal culture. Some of these were going to lead to cost-cutting or a
lack of focus on sustainability. Having the support and resources of Lion
Little World Beverages, allows us to attend to those competing priorities and
utilize our brewery capacity to its fullest.
Joining Little World Beverages to anchor a US Craft Beer
platform is so congruent with all the things we’ve committed ourselves to at
New Belgium that we jumped at the opportunity to offer this to our
shareholders. We’re thankful for Lion and Kirin’s support of our values and I’m
excited to help to build a collective of breweries along with the management of
New Belgium, who share the same commitment to delighting beer drinkers: with
great beer, great businesses and great collaboration amongst us.
Of course, there are always people to thank: boundless
thanks to all our passionate customers: you smuggled beer across state borders
a la Smokey and The Bandit, you got tattoos, you make our hearts swell with
pride with your care. To our retailers and distributors: nothing we’ve
done could have been done without you, huge props! To all of our friends inside
the craft brewing industry and in so many other places, thank you thank you
--we treasure your friendship now and in the future. And last, but
certainly not least to our amazing New Belgium Family, what can I say, but we
have created the most loving, curious, warm, interesting fun thing together and
I burst with pride every day. This is not the last chapter, there’s more
fun to be had.
We can’t wait to see what happens next. We are as
committed to being a vibrant, values-driven enterprise as we’ve ever been, and
we look forward to having a beer with all of you along the journey!
Here we go.
Much love,
Kim
*all of this is of dependent on our co-workers who
also are our shareholders, approving the conditions of this deal.
