California Black-owned breweries Full Circle Brewing and Speakeasy Ales & Lagers announced a merger today that the companies say will create the largest Black-owned brewing company in the U.S.
“I am excited for the passing of the baton to the next generation of Black entrepreneurs in the craft beer space,” Speakeasy CEO Ces Butner said in a press release announcing the deal. “I will continue to sit on the advisory board, and look forward to seeing the Speakeasy brand grow and evolve.”
“We are excited to apply what we learned from revitalizing Full Circle and increasing sales by 5,000%, to San Francisco’s longest running independent brewery,” Full Circle CEO Arthur Moye added. “We plan to breathe new life into current brands, and expand its range of products.”
Financial terms of the transaction, which was finalized last week, were not disclosed.
The deal will bring together Full Circle’s portfolio of fruit-forward products such as the Illa and Vibes series and the Sonoma Cider brands with Speakeasy’s traditional set of offerings (Big Daddy IPA West Coast IPA, Prohibition Ale and Metropolis hoppy American lager). The three brands will have 20,000 barrels of annual capacity (around 350,000 cases). The company said Steven Bruce, who was among Speakeasy’s founders, will represent the brand’s sales team in the Bay Area.
Full Circle marketing manager Adam Band told Brewbound that both brands plan to maintain their existing distribution networks. However, the company is still determining the future of the Speakeasy taproom and where the brand will be produced.
Fresno-based Full Circle has been in operation since 2000. Moye, a former CPA, took ownership of the brewery in 2016, after selling his accounting practice.
The merger follows Full Circle’s acquisition of Healdsburg, California-based Sonoma Cider. Moye bought the hard cider brand (excluding its former facility) in 2020, two years after it was forced to liquidate to pay off debts, The Press Democrat reported. Full Circle began offering Sonoma Cider in its taproom in 2021, and brought it back into distribution in 2022. The brewery’s beer volume reached 2,150 barrels in 2021, according to the Brewers Association’s (BA) May/June 2022 edition of the New Brewer.
Founded in 1997, Speakeasy’s output has declined considerably since its 2015 high of 32,673 barrels, according to production data collected by the BA. Its most significant drop-off in recent years took place from 2016-2017, when volume declined from 27,000 barrels to 5,446 barrels. It fell further in 2018, to 2,100 barrels. In 2021, the most recent year for which BA data is available, Speakeasy produced 5,000 barrels.
Butner acquired Speakeasy out of receivership in 2018, and worked to rebuild its distribution network – a part of the industry he was well acquainted with as the former owner of Oakland-based Horizon Beverage. Butner sold Horizon to Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2015, which brought it into its network of wholly owned distributors before selling it to Matagrano, Inc. and Markstein Sales Company last summer.
The merger comes as Full Circle is in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign via the StratEngine platform. The company has thus far raised $91,004.04 with 21 days left in its campaign. Full Circle previously raised nearly $682,000 through crowdfunding efforts, which helped the brewery upgrade its 30-barrel brewhouse and expand distribution to the East Coast, according to the campaign page. Overall, the company has raised around $1 million.
Band and Full Circle brewer Mike Sumaya recently joined the Brewbound Podcast to discuss the brewery’s crowdfunding efforts, its beer portfolio and distribution map. Listen here.