Molson Coors today announced that it will cease operations of the Saint Archer brewery and remove Saint Archer brands from the retail marketplace. The company plans to sell its San Diego brewery and taproom to Kings & Convicts Brewing Company.
Kings and Convicts Brewing will assume all physical assets of Saint Archer including the 50,000 square foot, 100,000 bbls Saint Archer brewery. The Miramar, San Diego county brewery will become the new operating headquarters for Kings & Convicts Brewing, where the company will begin brewing its own year-round core portfolio and specialty releases, small batch beers for Ballast Point Brewing Co., and brand-new craft beverage products.
MillerCoors bought Saint Archer in 2015 as the acquisition of craft breweries by Big Beer was at a fever pace. The same week that MillerCoors announced the Saint Archer purchase, Heineken announced that they were buying a 50% stake in Lagunitas Brewing Co., sending shock waves through the industry. Anheuser-Busch InBev NV had already bought four craft breweries in four years at that time. Some of those deals worked out for the global brewers and others have not. Kings and Convicts has already pounced on the fire sale of one such deal-gone-bad by buying Ballast Point Brewing in 2019 from Constellation Brands.
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