Ty Gilmore, president of Tilray Brands’ U.S. beer division, estimated that he receives around two to three calls a day from potential sellers looking to join the Canadian cannabis firm’s craft brewery platform.
“There’s just a lot of interest in what we’re doing,” Gilmore said during a fireside chat at the 2023 Brewbound Live business conference earlier this month. “For us, we want to be very active in this space, and we’ll continue to think through this.
“For us, it’s all about chemistry, fit, and do brands have a strategic plan that kinda works with us.”
Tilray Brands made a splash in August with an $85 million, eight-brand acquisition with Anheuser-Busch InBev that saw Tilray add Blue Point, Breckenridge Brewery, 10 Barrel, Redhook, Widmer Brothers, Shock Top, Square Mile Cider and HiBall to a portfolio that already included craft breweries SweetWater, Montauk, Green Flash and Alpine, as well as Breckenridge Distillery.
Gilmore attributed the outsized interest to what Tilray has quickly amassed, the investments the company has made post-acquisition in those brands, and the potential for federal legalization of cannabis.
Looking ahead, the biggest areas of geographic whitespace for Tilray are Texas and the Great Lakes region, Gilmore said.
“We’re working on some investments out in the Southwest that are going to make some more sense for us in the near future,” he said. “And that might be another opportunity as we look at whitespace on things that we may want to do.”
Tilray also has work to do in California, Gilmore admitted, even with “storied” San Diego brands Green Flash and Alpine Beer Co., whose trends have flipped from declines to growth under the company’s leadership.
Following the acquisitions of the eight brands from A-B, Tilray worked with Boston Consulting Group to build “a demand-centric growth model,” Gilmore said. He added that Tilray will deploy a three-pronged approach moving forward that includes:
- A regional approach with “regional jewels” the company will invest in, focusing on areas such as the Pacific Northwest with 10 Barrel, Widmer Brothers, Redhook and Square Mile Cider; the Northeast with Montauk and Blue Point; and the Southeast with SweetWater;
- National plays, including Shock Top, the SweetWater Gummies line of higher ABV IPAs and new innovations;
- And new-to-world innovations, both in and out of the beer category.
Tilray is now the fifth-largest Brewers Association-defined craft brewery, and 13th largest overall brewer in the U.S. Gilmore said there isn’t a magic number as far as the scale that Tilray is attempting to reach via its acquisitions. He noted Tilray is now the No. 1 craft brewery by volume in the Pacific Northwest, No. 2 in the Northeast, and top five in the Southeast.
Brewbound Insiders can watch the full conversation, including Tilray’s plans for Shock Top, innovation of 10 Barrel’s Pub Beer brand outside the beer space, recruiting new consumers with new package formats and future plans for THC beverages in the U.S.