The End of Green Flash & Alpine?

I'd just like to say that Dick Lobo, the new owner/president, is a fantastic name.

 

From the Full Pint article:

“Green Flash and Alpine assets have been sold to a risk management company in Michigan named WCIPA, LLC. We are still trying to learn more about this company.”

Does anybody know more or has a better understanding of the bold portion above?

From the Mike Hinkley letter:

“While the Green Flash and Alpine brands will continue, they will do so under new ownership…”

Is the intention that the new owner (a risk management company) will continue brewing Green Flash and Alpine beer at the California brewery?

Cheers!

 

The new owner is a PE-owned structure. Dick Lobo has apparently been a Green Flash board member for the last year: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-lobo-a853698/

 

Wow, wow, wow.

I hope for an independent Alpine again!

 

Does that 'structure' intimate they want to continue brewing beer or are they just in a 'holding pattern' until they can realize some money (e.g., sell off assets)?

Cheers!

 

Whatever happens with this collosal mess — please please please — will Lord Lobo find a way to brew Alpine Nelson again to its original specs and restore that once proud/top 50 BA Beer to its past glory??

 

Impossible to know. His background is in growth equity, not restructuring. Typical structure is buy into a healthy company, typically from a founder looking to cash out/retire, and then look to make acquisitions within that sector to fuel growth, stripping out expenses along the way. Case studies are provided here for example: http://www.chsonline.com/portfolio/case.html

Done right, it's a great model and many very successful businesses have been built this way. However, this is a broken company in an industry without top line growth. So, this is a different approach than how he's operated in the past.

 

No joke. Just dump the GF name and become hyper local or regional with Alpine. They were the ‘it’ brewery before SD had any. Can there be a resurgence? With so much debt, it doesn’t feel like they can or want to go small again.

Maybe the original alpine guys can produce their ipas elsewhere (or maybe they have already). From big time to nothing in 3 1/2 years. Scary.

 

Not too upset to see Green Flash go with Rayon Vert four-packs long gone, which was by far their best beer. I also enjoyed Palate Wrecker back in the day (and Green Bullet to an extent), but they have been languishing hard for a very long time. And they killed Alpine, and for that there can be no forgiveness or sorrow at their demise.

I hope Alpine comes out of this, expands on their own, and finally reaches the potential they always had.

It is truly crazy (and terrifying) that a brewery as big as Green Flash was could wither to nothing in such a short time.

With Stone's previous (over-)expansions that caused them layoffs not so long ago, I hope we do not see a similar eventuality come to pass as we are here with Green Flash.

 

Yup, Green Flash/Alpine is most definitely a "broken company" right now. I suppose we will have to take a 'wait and see' approach here and see what WCIPA, LLC decides to do with the mess.

I feel sorry for the former Green Flash employees. This must be unsettling times for them.

Cheers!

 

Does anyone else find it interesting that they are being sold to a company called "WC IPA", considering "west coast IPA" is one of their flagships?

 

This is certainly insalubrious news in the wake of the massive growth experienced in the craft beer industry...

I can only comment on my personal observations:
1 - Green Flash beers were much more available on the East Coast (NJ - specifically) when they only operated the Sand Diego location...the last time I saw Palate Wrecker, Green Bullet or even a fresh West Coast IPA has to be years.
2 - Being on the East Coast and have never having Alpine beers, the less-than-complimentary reviews of Alpine since they were acquired were less than positive. As a result, even when I came across them I passed.
3 - The Green Flash beer portfolio shrunk in the last couple of years...

For such a successful brewery, it is hard to imagine how things went awry so quickly...I hope this doesn't start a trend...

 

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/sd-fi-green-flash-foreclosure-20180403-story.html

This article is pretty insightful... including a juicy nugget

"McIlhenney and his wife -- Val McIlhenney, who was vice president of Green Flash’s Alpine Beer division -- will have no role in the new company. Their son, Shawn McIlhenney, remains under contract as a Green Flash brewer.

Hinkley, who started Green Flash 16 years ago, will lead the new company, according to a news release, although a document from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control identifies him as vice president.

McIlhenney had harsh words for Hinkley.

“He has no business being in this business,” McIlhenney said. “His business prowess is abysmal.” "

 

According to the Green Flash press release, both the Green Flash and Alpine breweries will continue to operate as the company transitions to a regional southwestern footprint.

 

I read that too and immediately thought who hires the guy who messes up the company? Sounds like a good way to get McIllhenney and any equity they were owed out of the equation and then start brewing as usual.... I think there is a deeper story here...

 

The bigger they are, the bigger they fall...

 

I think I'm in the minority of those who enjoy Alpine Windows Up?

 

No great beer, I even enjoyed gf spanish trampoline

 

I read the article and all of the replies and still find myself confused. What does this mean for the actual BEER? Will it still be brewed and distributed as Green Flash and Alpine? But sad news indeed for those losing their jobs...