• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Fireman’s Brew talks stock offer strategy

April 15, 2013Chris Crowell

For small brewers itching to move beyond their current footprint or capacity limitations, consider the private stock route taken by a number of new brewers, including Fireman’s Brew, a Los Angeles-based craft beer company founded by two firefighters.

Firemans Brew Logo
Fireman’s Brew has a great story, great beers and, thus far, a great strategy that has allowed it to expand rapidly and keep up with demand.

In 2013, Fireman’s Brew plans to double their numbers. The brewery announced a private stock offering to help raise the necessary capital they need to continue their booming expansion and to build Fireman’s Brew into a national brand. Some quick details on that offering, which was announced in October 2012: The company offered 6,250,000 shares of common stock at $0.80 per share for an aggregate offering price of $5 million. The minimum purchase is 6,250 shares for $5,000. Prospective investors must be residents of the State of California.

We followed-up with Founder Rob Nowaczyk and Chief Operating Officer David Johnson for some details on this stock offering strategy. They couldn’t comment much in way of specifics on this current offering for legal reasons, but they closed a similar offering on May 31, 2012. Since that time, the company expanded inventory and its distribution footprint beyond California to five other states including: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska and Nevada.

“As a result of our last stock offering, we have been able to expand and achieve a sales growth of over 300 percent in 2012,” Nowaczyk said.

Brewers across the country are seeking expansion a variety of ways – so what made that earlier stock offering so appealing as a strategy?

“To begin, in 2011, we were able to secure distribution at a major Southern California retailer and as a result needed to expand to service the influx of new business. As a small company, we made the decision to bring in outside investors with our previous stock offering to help facilitate our growth,” Nowaczyk said.

For space planning advice, be sure to check out “Craft brewing operations: Tips for workflow, facility planning, packaging”

This strategy is obviously not without its obstacles and red tape. Nowaczyk said some of those finding and paying for appropriate legal representation, internal and external due diligence and aligning with the right investment banker for your particular type of offering. It is a very time consuming process.

“Every business is different and every business owner has different goals. I can only recommend that each business owner uses the strategy that he or she thinks is best for them,” he said.

Despite not being able to share many key details at this time in the process, Nowaczyk is definitely excited about his brand and the opportunities that lay ahead thanks to these stock offering opportunities.

“Number one, we have an authentic brand story that nobody can replicate,” he said. “Two firefighters set out to brew fantastic beer with a goal of giving a portion of the profits back to the families of their fallen brothers.  Number two, we produce a line of high quality, award winning beers. All three of our beers are critically acclaimed and our flavor profiles appeal to a broad spectrum of beer drinkers. And number three, we have an accomplished management team with over 100 years of industry experience. Fireman’s Brew is incredibly fortunate to have a dedicated group of professionals working for us. There is no better way to describe us than as a team.”

Firemans Brew Logo Feature
Fireman’s Brew announces new stock offering for California investors
Fireman’s Brew sets ambitious 2013 expansion goals after private stock offer
Payment processing craft brewery-001
What payment processing option is right for your brewery?
Facility Planning Feature
Enough brew for your buck? A review of brewery, tasting room space plans

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. FiremansBrew says

    April 15, 2013 at 1:00 pm

    RT @CraftBrewingBiz: Does a stock offering make sense for your brewery? It did for @FiremansBrew. http://t.co/jPmJz1gfNI

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Toronto transaction: Junction Craft Brewery acquires Woodhouse Brewing Co.
  • 3 Daughters Brewing opening a spot in St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport
  • New podcast: Answering your 2022 beer branding trends questions
  • Watch: Bear Republic explains how its solar system works

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • Distribution update: Athletic Brewing and Buffalo Wild Wings team up + news from Evil Genius, Trap Door, Living The Dream and more
    May 25, 2022
  • urban-artifactUrban Artifact crafts the world’s most expensive fermented beverage and more beers to know this week
    May 24, 2022
  • 2022 Beer Branding Trends Part 2: Beyond Beer
    May 23, 2022
  • The-IBA-TeamIBA hits milestone – 1 million bbls of buying power – what’s next for the co-op?
    May 19, 2022
  • 2022 Beer Branding Trends Part 1: Reinvention
    May 17, 2022
  • satisfaction surveysAre brewery employees happy? Depends on the department
    May 16, 2022

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2022 · CBB Media LLC

Posting....