Non-alcoholic beer continues to grow.
The Connecticut-based, non-alcoholic brewery Athletic Brewing has purchased a San Diego brewery, and closed a $17.5M Series B funding round.
Both point torwards greater distribution for this fast-expanding company.
The San Diego brewery will initially increase Athletic’s brewing capacity approximately tenfold. The infrastructure at the brewery could be expanded further, the company says, to increase that ceiling significantly more. The brewhouse requires renovation to accommodate Athletic’s proprietary recipes and processes, and is expected to restart production mid-May.
The San Diego brewery will complement Athletic’s flagship brewery and taproom in Stratford, CT. The price for the west coast brewery was not disclosed.
Currently, Athletic sells its beer onsite, or via shipping directly to consumers, as the product is low enough in ABV to be considered non-alcoholic.
Athletic also announced the closing of a $17.5M Series B funding round. The round was funded by Athletic’s existing investor team of over sixty angel investors. The financing round will go torwards the expansion of the team, the San Diego brewery purchase, a new high-speed canning line, marketing expenses and the rollout to at least ten new states for distribution.
“We have always been extremely grateful for our incredible investor team who afforded us the opportunity to pursue our crazy dreams and seek to have a massive positive social impact on tens of millions of people,” says Athletic Co-Founder Bill Shufelt.
“This agreement is a great opportunity for Athletic to build on our mission of brewing amazing craft beers for healthy and active adults in an area Ballast Point put on the map 20 plus years ago,” he adds. “We are thrilled to be their neighbors here in Miramar. This acquisition is good news for our community and drinkers everywhere as we will be able to expand our brewing capacity to keep up with skyrocketing demand and keep our wholesaler, retailer and drinkers happily supplied with Athletic. We’d also like to extend our deep gratitude to our distributor and retailer partners who have believed in Athletic and remained patient while demand overtook supply. We’re getting ready to brew more Athletic and it’s coming to you soon.”
After launching in 2018, Athletic Brewing Company’s sales increased over 1,000% to over 10,000 barrels volume in 2019, the company says.
The company donates 2% of all sales to trail and park cleanups through their Two for the Trails program, expecting to contribute multiple six figures to trails across the nation this year.
