Heineken invests in Beavertown and its own pubs
Ending weeks of speculation, the craft brewer Beavertown, founded by Logan Plant, the son of Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, announced on 21 June 2018 that Heineken has acquired a minority stake.
It is the latest addition to Heineken’s UK craft beer portfolio after the Dutch brewer bought a minority stake in London’s Brixton brewery last year.
Beavertown said it plans to build a 450,000 hl brewery in London for GBP 40 million (USD 53 million) that will increase its brewing capacity tenfold. Mr Plant wrote on the Beavertown blog that the company had explored other financing options, including crowd-funding and private equity, but dismissed them as unsuitable.
Heineken confirmed the investment in Beavertown but made it clear that the GBP 40 million pounds was the cost of the brewery, not the value of its stake.
Also in June, Heineken announced that its pub division, Star Pubs & Bar, will invest GBP 44 million (USD 58.4 million) into sprucing up around 500 of the 2,900 pubs owned by its pub unit. In 2017 Heineken bought about 1,900 pubs from Punch Taverns, making its estate the country’s third largest pub business. The vast majority are leased out. Including the new investment, Heineken will have spent GBP 140 million (USD 186 million) on pub refurbishments since 2014.
The UK’s pub sector is not doing too well as on-premise beer sales fell by nearly half between 2000 and 2016. Nearly 2,300 pubs have closed since January 2012, bringing their total number down to 50,000.
