• 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

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

Anyone want to buy Renegade Brewing’s Denver production facility for $1.2M?

July 24, 2018Keith Gribbins

Picture your beer brand name right here.

There are few places in the world where the beer industry is more competitive than Colorado. Denver specifically has around 70 breweries (some brands with multiple locations in that number). Renegade Brewing Co. is one of the best, but even that great brand, which started in 2011, is reworking its business plan to offset risk in Denver’s ultra-competitive marketplace. In 2015, Renegade began operating its $1.4 million, 15,000-sq-ft production facility on 925 West First St.

But after only three years, the production facility is up for sale. Why? The rent is too high, and the leased facility wants Renegade to open up a taproom. Renegade does not have a brewpub there, as the original brewery and taproom are just eight blocks south. Plus, with so much local competition and a new strategy that’s focused more on gas station/grocery store sales (which will be selling “full strength” beer next year) and a regional taproom model, Renegade wants to lower its production costs to stay competitive. We reached out to Renegade to get more info, and they gave us this statement from Brian O’Connell, Renegade Brewing founder

We all know the craft beer landscape is ever-changing. With Renegade’s newly formed partnership with Silver Fox Partners in November of 2017, we have taken the last eight months to evaluate the craft beer landscape and form a strategic path forward for Renegade. We have chosen to expand Renegade through additional taproom locations inside and outside of Colorado, and we are currently pursuing retail taproom opportunities. Additionally, our landlord desires a brewery with a retail presence at The Yard, which currently houses only our production. The Yard is an exciting development containing a coffee shop, distillery, board game café and BBQ restaurant located eight blocks south of our original retail location on 9th Avenue. Renegade wishes to spread its geographic retail presence to a regional model, so opening a retail location eight blocks from our existing retail location is not the best option for us. However, this is a wonderful opportunity for a brewery seeking a retail presence in a hot new development in Denver.

That being said, the sale of 1st Ave is a strategic decision, not a financial one, so we will only turn it over to a new brewery for the right offer, and we can be patient in waiting for that. Our manufacturing operation will also continue to expand through optimizing manufacturing costs, especially costs related to rising real estate values. Renegade is currently searching for the long-term home of our manufacturing operations, and we absolutely are committed to growing our current manufacturing operations. There will be no gap in manufacturing for Renegade. We will be continuously producing and shipping throughout our transition. We have been in talks with all of the grocery chains, and we are looking forward to being placed in all of their stores as we go into 2019. We are excited to welcome a new brewery with a retail presence into our Santa Fe neighborhood as we continue to build Santa Fe as one of the premier brewing neighborhoods in Denver.

According to this Westworld story, the sale includes all the equipment, a long lease and a manufacturing capacity of 11,000 bbls per year. Last year, Renegade made another big power move by selling an undisclosed stake to Silver Fox Partners, founded by Anne Mulcahy, the former CEO and chairwoman of the Xerox Corp. This was also a move to stay competitive, the company said at the time.

ESTER_portal_2879
Match beers to customers with ESTER’s Flavor Intelligence Platform (early adopter deal going on)
michigan-golf-beer-guild
Michigan Brewers Guild to try golf outings as outdoor, distanced fundraisers
BrewDog sustainability
Marketing / sustainability idea of the week: BrewDog’s Buy One Get One Tree promotion
Craft Brewers Association of Oklahoma launches slick new website (maybe visit it)

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Portland Cider Co. donates $12,500 to Hunger-Free Schools
  • Penguin City Beer adds a tenant (first black, female-owned ciderhouse in Ohio)
  • Craft Beer Consumer Habits in February 2021: Are on-site attitudes changing?
  • Watch: Magliner’s Powered Lifting Hand Truck makes moving kegs quick and effortless

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • craft beer consumer tastesCraft Beer Consumer Habits in February 2021: Are on-site attitudes changing?
    February 24, 2021
  • No and low alcohol beer grew 30+ percent last year, now enjoy some big haps in the NA beer sector
    February 23, 2021
  • How to Seduce a Distributor: The importance of branding, common misconceptions and automatic disqualifiers
    February 22, 2021
  • I would totally sit in a hot tub of hops and drink chill pints at this new beer spa in Denver
    February 18, 2021
  • truly hard seltzer‘Truly’ crushing it: Boston Beer nets over $1.7 billion in 2020 revenue
    February 18, 2021
  • Wholesaler Updates: Stone Distribution expands into former AB Inbev warehouse (news on Urban South, Wild Leap, Hairless Dog and lots more)
    February 17, 2021

Footer

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

© 2021 · CBB Media LLC

Continue ...

sponsored by