Alcohol-free beer specialist Drop Bear Beer Co has acquired the brewery and assets of fellow Welsh brewer Tomos Watkin.
The Swansea-based business raised £1.9m from a combination of private investors and crowdfunding to fund the acquisition and make upgrades to brewing equipment on site.
Co-founder Joelle Drummond said the “watershed” purchase of Drop Bear’s first physical brewery would enable it to produce up to 25 million cans of its alcohol-free brews a year.
They said owning production and packaging of Drop Bear’s beers would increase profitability “10-fold”, giving it more funds to spend on sales and marketing efforts.
Tomos Watkin’s two full-time staff members have been retained, and Drop Bear plans to continue to produce the brand’s beers alongside its alcohol-free offer.
“We’re really passionate about keeping independent Welsh breweries alive,” Drummond said. “We’re in the situation at the moment where we’re seeing breweries close constantly, so we saw this as an opportunity to save one.”
“It’s great to have a more diverse portfolio of businesses. Most of the growth in alcohol is currently being driven by people who drink but don’t have alcohol all the time, so this enables us to target our customers both when they are and aren’t drinking.”
Production at the new 16,000 sq ft site would begin “within the next three weeks” to enable Drop Bear to scale up ahead of an official launch in January.
From then, retail expansion is on the agenda as the brewer looks to build on its 200-store footprint across Co-op in England and Tesco stores across the UK.
“The number one place that people are discovering alcohol-free is still supermarkets,” Drummond said. “So retail is really key for us.
“We’re also looking to do more beer in keg format, and export – which has been really important for the brand.”
Drop Bear Beer Co is also stocked nationally on Ocado and Amazon. Its range comprises Tropical IPA, Yuzu Pale Ale, Bonfire Stout, and New World Lager variants, all of which have an abv of 0.5%.
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