Sauce Brewing, part of Sydney's Inner West brewery hub, are seeking expressions of interest to buy their wholesale business. The owners intend to focus on their brewpub in Marrickville and are keen to sell or license the wholesale side of the business, made up of Sauce beers and Twizzle Cocktails.
They are also selling their canning line, depalletiser, pack-off conveyor, date coder and labeller, and will listen to offers for the entire business.
More on Sauce's proposal in the media release below.
Seeking Expressions of Interest: Sale of Wholesale Business (or entire business) of Sauce Brewing Co and Twizzle Cocktails
The Sauce brewpub, in the heart of the Inner West Ale Trail in Marrickville, trades well, continuing to shine and grow.
Our kegs and packaged product have reasonable wholesale distribution, but volumes are down on pre-COVID times and taken in isolation, the wholesale side of the business is sub-scale.
Expectations of rate relief from the RBA have been pushed back to 2025, with any economic recovery or increase in consumer spending likely to be late 2025 or later.
So we are thinking strategically, how do we take advantage of what is working well (the brewpub), and maintain our market presence in retailers and bars, but also cover our costs of packaging and wholesale distribution?
Essentially, we have decided to focus our efforts on our brewpub, and to seek expressions of interest from other breweries for the sale (or license) of our wholesale business. This would be best suited to another brewery with their own packaging and distribution, who could benefit from the additional revenue while absorbing our production and distribution into their existing network.
How the deal is structured would depend on the buyer, but we would anticipate including, for both Sauce beers and Twizzle cocktails:
- Stock on hand, including finished goods, packaging materials and some ingredients
- Brand rights
- Recipes
- Customers / goodwill
Other considerations (there are a few ways to skin this cat):
- We would continue selling packaged product for takeaways/online orders, but would purchase that product from the buyer of the wholesale business.
- We would continue producing beer in kegs in our brewery, for sale in our brewpub.
- We are open to either a permanent sale, or an agreement where brand and distribution rights could be reviewed and renewed periodically.
- We are open to a vendor finance arrangement, or ongoing royalties in lieu of an upfront price.
- We are also open to other proposals or strategic partnerships to achieve economies of scale or mutual benefit. Talk to us!
Also available for sale:
- Wild Goose 4-head canning line, with Codi depalletiser, pack-off conveyor, date coder and labeller.
As for the brewpub itself, while we don’t think now is the right time to be selling that, if a reasonable offer was to present itself, we would not ignore it.
The brewpub may be a valuable asset for:
- A hotel group looking to acquire a production facility for kegged beer
- A hotel group looking to add a brewpub to their portfolio
- A brewery looking to gain a presence in Inner West Sydney. Either for production, as a venue, or both.
To discuss in more detail, please contact Mike Clarke: mike@sauce.beer / 0416 015 166.