Anchor Brewing, the Oldest Craft Brewer within the U.S., Will Close After 127 Years

It survived San Francisco’s devastating 1906 earthquake, Prohibition and each world wars. But current financial pressures proved an excessive amount of for the oldest craft brewer within the nation: After 127 years, Anchor Brewing Company is shutting down.

In a press release launched Wednesday, the corporate, based in 1896, stated that the impacts of the pandemic, inflation and a extremely aggressive market left it “with no option but to make this sad decision to cease operations.” Employees got 60 days’ discover and promised severance packages, the corporate stated. Anchor added that though it had stopped brewing, it might proceed packing and distributing beer whereas out there. It might be offered on draft whereas stock stays, it stated.

The brewer’s gross sales had been declining since 2016, and in 2017, the corporate was acquired for round $85 million by the Japanese beer big Sapporo.

“The stake through the heart of Anchor was the pandemic,” Sam Singer, a spokesman for the corporate, stated by telephone on Wednesday, noting that 70 % of its product had been offered in eating places and bars. In 2021, Anchor Brewing tried to adapt, rebranding and bottling and canning extra of its beers to promote in grocery shops. But these adjustments “couldn’t make up for the significant loss of sales,” he added. In a last-ditch try to remain afloat, Anchor restricted gross sales of its beer to California, and stopped producing considered one of its merchandise, a Christmas ale.

But bills continued to outstrip revenues. “The bottom line is that Anchor ran out of money, and it ran out of time,” Mr. Singer stated.

Anchor, beloved by many Americans and sometimes credited with spurring a craft beer resurgence within the Sixties, is the most recent brewer to succumb to the pressures of a highly-competitive market. In current years, a variety of smaller brewers have been absorbed by bigger firms. Others have reworked their distribution fashions, or shuttered.

Regional brewers like Anchor which can be massive sufficient to promote its beers on the nationwide degree however sufficiently small to be thought-about a craft brewery are most susceptible. They face competitors from each native micro breweries and macro breweries like Coors or Miller, stated Jarrett Hart, a scholar in agriculture and economics on the University of California, Davis, whose analysis has targeted on craft beer. “They’ve been facing losses year after year in profits, and they’ve been generally losing market share,” he stated.

After Anchor was acquired by Sapporo, employees spoke out about what they described as insufficient pay and unfair working situations, and voted to unionize in 2019.

Joanne Marino, the chief director of Bay Area Brewers Guild, stated on Wednesday that given the crippling financial actuality, it was hardly a shock that Anchor had shuttered. But she stated the news was nonetheless heartbreaking.

“Whenever a small brewery is purchased by a large, multinational conglomerate, the calculus changes a little bit for their existence,” Ms. Marino stated. “It’s not a surprise, but it’s a shock and it’s a very sad day here.”

Anchor Brewing stated that regardless of repeated efforts to search out consumers for the brewery and its manufacturers, none had come to fruition. Mr. Singer stated the brewery had gone via many crises in its historical past, and hoped there may nonetheless be an opportunity for revival if a purchaser stepped ahead through the liquidation course of.

“San Francisco’s flag is a phoenix rising from the ashes, and Anchor has had many phoenix moments in its history,” Mr. Singer stated. “But that’s out of that’s out of our hands now,” he added. “We can only hope for the best.”