Cigar City AB InBev Rumor

This is what? The third time now? It's becoming an old washed up rumor.

Well, until it's true...

 

Arent they the brewery that fought against AB in bev the most to get the growler laws changed down there ?? Why fight all that , to only give up and sell a year later. Seems kinda stupid on so many levels .

 

This is such cracker jack reporting. The internet can make anyone feel like a legitimate journalist. The three sources they mention probably told the reporter that Cigar City met with ABI and nothing else.

 

Eh, Full Pint homered them hard when they were getting slammed for Hunaphu day's big cluster fuck and were the voice through which CCB communicated the make up stuff with. So that's got to count for something if they are deciding to run this news.

 

Say it ain't so Joe

 

This would be an EPIC disappoint for me.

 

Hope this never happens.

 

Huna as a shelf beer in NJ .. I like it

 

In the event that they did sell out I wonder what the price would be, Breckenridge sold for about $70 million.

 

I used to be all.. Oh this would be horrible! But really, I don't think it would matter much to me if CCB sold. I would be super happy for Joey. I mean he built that business from nothing to something worth millions in just a few years. Good for him. It would suck to lose El Cat tho.

 

Are you comparing Breckenridge to Cigar City? Not even close. Breckenridge beers are mediocre and most people don't know who they are. Cigar City on the other hand, produces a lot of top notch beers and are very well known and popular. So, if Ballast Point was bought for one billion, you can expect a similar price tag.

 

Seems like chump change in the grand scale of things. I mean, Ballast Point was acquired by Constellation Brands for $1B.

 

A LOT of smoke around this fire the last few weeks. Honestly I'd be surprised if it isn't true.

 

I'm in no way comparing CCB and Breckenridge quality, just brought it up because they are the last big name craft brewery InBev bought. I doubt you will see $1B for CCB or anything close to that, the price Constellation paid for Ballast Point was crazy high and probably had more to do with acquiring their spirits program since craft spirits will probably be the next big thing in the liquor world.

 

Yeah 1 billion isn't happening. We can stop that silliness now.

 

BP is a national brand. CCB is only seriously distributed in FL and sparsely in a handful of other states.

 

CCB's growth trajectory is much more similar to Ballast Point than Breckenridge, but based on size and capacity, CCB needs a capital injection and established distribution network more than Ballast Point did. I'd guess CCB's value is in the $100-150mm range based on the BP acquisition --- but I doubt that selling out is CCB's preferred way to get access to that capital. How much distribution matters in this day and age is a harder question to answer.

 

Ballast Point got a very favorable valuation but they were shooting for that same valuation with their IPO so maybe I was missing something. According to some of the articles, constellation didn't acquire the spirits division which makes me scratch my head even more on the valuation. Now the comparison of Ballast Point and Cigar City is not close based on their expected 2015 output, BP was looking to hit 300k BBLs and I think CCB was going to max out around 60k BBLs. Those were both rumored numbers but I think they are probably in the ballpark.

If I remember correctly Breckenridge was on track about 70k BBLs but that is spread over 30 states they distribute in. Obviously CCB would probably be able to get a better valuation as they are similar output with most being sold in Florida and still struggling to keep up.

The growler laws that CCB and other Florida breweries were fighting for was against the wholesalers in the state and not with AB.

One thing I've learned about this industry is there are no credible sources in the beer industry. Hell, even the owners of the breweries aren't even credible sources sometimes.

 

Jesus....I can just see it now when InBev buys them in their press release they will say no major changes are planned but The CCB Logo will no longer be a cigar as its now a Clydesdale and Hunahpu Day 2017 will be held in March as usual but in Antwerp Belgium...