Two of Utah’s well-known beer breweries, Squatters Craft Beers and Wasatch Brewery will become part of the Monster Beverage Corporation (NasdaqGS:MNST) family as a part of CANarchy Craft Brewery Collectives’ $330 million cash buy-out.
According to the Monster news release, this is the company's first foray into alcoholic beverages, and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of the year. Additionally, the acquisition is only of the CANarchy alcoholic beverage brands and does not include any restaurants.
The Squatters and Wasatch breweries became part of CANarchy's collective brands in 2017.
“This transaction provides us with a springboard from which to enter the alcoholic beverage sector, the acquisition will provide us with a fully in-place infrastructure, including people, distribution, and licenses, along with alcoholic beverage development expertise and manufacturing capabilities in this industry,” said Monster’s Vice Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer Hilton Schlosberg.
In addition to Squatters Craft Beers and Wasatch Brewery, the Monster brand will be adding 5 more of CANarchy Collectives to its portfolio including:
- Cigar City Brewing,
- Perrin Brewing,
- Deep Ellum Brewing,
- Oskar Blues Brewery, and
- Wild Basin Hard Seltzer.
Monster’s Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer Rodney Sacks added:
“The addition of CANarchy and its brands to the Monster beverage portfolio represents an excellent opportunity to further grow our already robust product offerings, we are excited to build and expand upon CANarchy’s existing brands with innovative new products.”
Wasatch Brewery and Squatters Craft Beers have both contributed as trailblazers within Utah’s business community.
Since its founding in 1986, Wasatch Brewery became Utah’s first brewery and in 1988 opened its doors in Park City, Utah as Utah’s first brewpub.
In 1989, Squatters Craft Beers further expanded Utah’s brewpub community by opening Salt Lake City’s first brewpub.
The two companies aligned their brewing operations for draft bottle and can production in 2000.
