Venture Capital moves further into craft beer
Full marks to journalist James Beeson for reporting on the story that Breal have taken control of Brick the Sarf London craft brewer. The good news is that brewery and jobs appear safe although creditors may feel less happy, usually the case in such matters.
The story is here:
Beeson is right that its hard to discover who Breal actually are. They certainly have a central London base but are a Group of companies that also seem to operate elsewhere around the globe. Their record of investments in things such as steel and yarn doesn’t suggest an interest in beer.
However that is not the point. They have capital that they are looking to invest for a decent return in the medium term (typically 5 years). It might be argued that craft beer is at the bottom of the market currently and so an investment now could be a nice little earner as the market grows again.
Venture capital in beer is far from new either, with Brewdog having a significant interest from a different company.
Not Big Beer, but along with a return on investments a search for ‘efficiencies’ will usually be a feature. It will be interesting to see where that leads
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