Craft brewer Gage Roads buys Matso’s flavoured beer brands
The price seems right. The Western Australian craft brewer Gage Roads from Fremantle has taken over Matso’s for AUD 13.25 million (USD 10 million) with a deferred consideration of up to AUD 2.8 million more, subject to meeting sales volume targets, over a three-year period, it was reported on 7 June 2018.
Matso’s is an iconic beer brand owned by the Peirson-Jones family in Broome, Western Australia, some 2,000 km north of Fremantle. The brand is best known for its wildly flavoured beers (notably mango) and nationally distributed alcoholic ginger beer.
The two companies are already connected through a contract deal. Since 2007 Gage Roads has been brewing Matso’s products.
Reportedly, Matso’s sells about 20,000 hl per year and the brands generate annual earnings (EBITDA) of more than AUD 2.5 million.
The Peirson-Jones family will continue to own and operate its brewpub in Broome through a licensing agreement. However, the deal gives Gage Roads the option to acquire that business within three years.
Reportedly, the brand took its name from Matso’s General Store, which was run by the Matsumoto family in the 1950s. The former store houses the Matso’s brewpub, where co-founders Martin and Kim Peirson-Jones started the business in 2000 with a two hl brewhouse.
Founded by Bill Hoedemaker, John Hoedemaker and Peter Nolin in 2002 and located near Fremantle in a former margarine factory, Gage Roads is named after a sea channel in the Indian Ocean between Fremantle and Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia.
Gage Roads became stock market listed in 2006. In 2009, when the brewer was struggling, the retailer Woolworths acquired a 25 percent share. This allowed Gage Roads to purchase a 100 hl brewhouse and gain national distribution. In 2016, they bought back Woolworths’ share.
In its 2017 financial year (ended 30 June 2017), Gage Roads produced about 110,000 hl beer. Revenues were AUD 27.2 million and earnings (EBITDA) stood at AUD 4.4 million.
