Anchor Brewing employees can save the brewery by buying it
Unionized employees of Anchor Brewing Co., the 127-year-old San Francisco brewery that announced last week it was shutting down, are launching an effort to buy the company to stave off liquidation.
In a statement, Anchor spokesperson Sam Singer said a union spokesperson emailed the company that “Anchor Brewing workers have met, discussed and decided to begin an effort to purchase the brewery.” The union spokesperson added that the purchase is being pursued by an “unidentified group of Anchor employees,” not the union itself, Singer said.
“Given our deep respect for Anchor Union and our team members, should our employees present a bona fide, legally binding offer to purchase the company, one that includes a verifiable source of funds, we would be happy to consider it,”[ads1]; Singer said.
Anchor’s union members are now planning ways to raise the funds needed to buy the company: employees feel the effort will be “much bigger than a gofundme,” the union wrote in a chirpingand employees “want to be as calculated as possible.”
“Overwhelmed by the responses for help. We are working behind the scenes to try to figure out the best possible way to raise money and actually do this,” the union’s tweet said.
The company announced on July 12 that it was shutting down, stating that operating the business was “no longer sustainable” due to factors such as product costs and a “highly competitive craft beer market” combined with Anchor’s “historically expensive steam brewing technology.” Employees were given 60 days notice on the same day. The news devastated San Francisco beer enthusiasts and spurred a 4,000% national increase in sales of the company’s beer in the days following the announcement.
Although the company is open to an employee buyout, Singer said “time is running out” and that Anchor will continue to move forward with transferring its assets through an assignment to creditors in early August.
