Morganton, North Carolina based Catawba Brewing Co. has reached an agreement to acquire Charleston, South Carolina based Palmetto Brewing Co.
Catawba co-founder Billy Pyatt said that his company will acquire “100 percent” of Palmetto’s assets and hopes to close on the transaction by the end of the year.
Once the deal is finalized, Pyatt said the company will embark on a $1 million capital improvement project — paid for with debt financing and cash flow — to increase capacity at both breweries. Palmetto will eventually be able to scale up to 20,000 barrels while Catawba will be able to produce 30,000 barrels at its main production facility in Morganton. Pyatt added that equipment upgrades will be made at the Charleston facility in order to “soup up” its brewhouse.
Catawba currently ships beer to five states — North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama — while Palmetto’s offerings are available in the Carolinas and coastal Georgia. Pyatt said Catawba and Palmetto share many of the same distributors in those overlapping markets. However, where the two breweries are misaligned, Pyatt said “high-level discussions” will begin with distributors.
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