Sapporo Buys Craft Beer Maker Stone Brewing To Expand U.S. Operations

Sapporo Breweries Ltd.’s acquisition of Stone Brewing Co., a craft beer producer based in California, has given the Japanese brand a couple of bases to expand in the United States, Yuji Yamashita reported for Asahi Shimbun.

Photo Insert: Sapporo started exporting beer to the United States in 1964, where its Sapporo Premium Beer and other products are sold at mass retailers.

Stone Brewing operates breweries on both the US Pacific and Atlantic coasts, which Sapporo will use to produce its own products from next year. Sapporo’s subsidiary, Sapporo USA Inc., bought Stone Brewing for $168 million in August.

The deal was announced in June. Currently, Sapporo beer products sold in the US are produced in factories in Canada and Vietnam.

With its acquisition of Stone Brewing, Sapporo has secured production bases in the US that can help reduce logistics costs under the current export setup. Sapporo started exporting beer to the United States in 1964.

Its Sapporo Premium Beer and other products are sold at mass retailers there.

Its sales in the US have been increasing, except for 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, and hit a record $71 million in 2021. Sapporo set a goal of raising its overseas sales by at least 1.7 times from 2021 by 2026.

“We want to fit in the everyday lives of people in the United States,” Sapporo President Hiroyuki Nose said.

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