Belgium’s Duvel Moortgat takes 35 percent stake in Del Ducato

Funny that they kept quiet over this transaction for more than six months. Only in early July 2017 did the family-owned brewer Duvel Moortgat admit to have taken a 35 percent stake in the Italian craft brewer Birrificio del Ducato, although the deal was already clinched in December 2016. No financial details were provided.

Founded in 2007 by Giovanni Campari and Manuel Piccolo and located in Roncole Verdi, a small village halfway between Milan and Bologna, Del Ducato is well-known amongst craft beer aficionados in Europe, brewing 5,000 hl beer last year, including ales, sours and beers with wine.

Del Ducato also runs two pubs in London, one in Chiswick (opened 2015) and one in Notting Hill (opened May 2017) after a successful crowdfunding campaign which flushed in over EUR 400,000 (USD 460,000).

Pursuing a buy-and-build strategy like the Big Brewers, Duvel Moortgat has steadily expanded its brewery portfolio over the past few years, buying up traditional breweries (Brasserie d'Achouffe, Liefmans, de Koninck in Belgium) and craft breweries alike (Boulevard, Firestone Walker in the US, ‘t IJ in Amsterdam). It also owns the breweries Bernard in the Czech Republic and Ommegang in the US.

The Belgian brewer said that they want to keep the two founders of Del Ducato on board to expand the brewery.

Media speculated on the clandestine nature of the transaction which reminded several commentators of AB-InBev’s hush-hush part-takeover of RateBeer.

On 13 July 2017 the founders of Del Ducato finally came clean and posted their reasons for the sale on their website, saying that they did not feel the need to publicise the deal as nothing had changed and besides, Duvel Moortgat was not AB-InBev or Heineken; it’s a family business, not stock market-listed and therefore understands beer better.

This may well be the case, but the need for secrecy still confounds.