has been acquired by
Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, today announced it acted as the exclusive financial advisor to U.S. Drinks LLC doing business as The Lion Brewery (“Lion”), a leading Northeastern contract beverage manufacturer and portfolio company of Blue Point Capital Partners, in its acquisition by Encore Consumer Capital.
Based in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Lion provides beverage brands with specialized brewing, blending, filling, and packaging services. Customers include national and regional brands in the specialty brewed beverage, energy drink, specialty soft drink, and beer segments that package products in can or glass bottle formats.
“As beverage brands continue to rely on outsourced production models, contract manufacturers have seen growth that has outpaced broader category benchmarks. Lion’s unique combination of production capabilities and expertise, quality, and Northeast location has resulted in customer demand that exceeds current capacity, creating opportunities to strategically drive continued expansion” said Erik Einwalter, Cascadia Capital Managing Director. “The clearly defined roadmap for growth is what attracted Encore to the business.”
“We continue to see an acceleration of interest in contract manufacturing as both strategic and financial buyers look to gain exposure to growing end markets,” added Bryan Jaffe, Cascadia Capital Managing Director. “Changing consumer preferences continue to alter the requirements for food and beverage suppliers and we are aligning our practice to serve the capital and liquidity needs of those within the industry.”
The acquisition represents another successful transaction for Cascadia in the beverage manufacturing sector, with recent transactions including the sale of Fruitsmart, Carolina Beverage Group, California Natural Products, and Cold Spring Brewing Company. Lion is the sixth facility-based food and beverage client advised by Cascadia in the last 24 months.
For more information about this transaction, please contact the Cascadia Capital deal team:
Erik Einwalter
Managing Director
EEinwalter@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2538
Bryan Jaffe
Managing Director
BJaffe@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2534
Or other senior members of the Cascadia Food, Beverage & Agribusiness practice:
Michael Butler
Chairman & CEO
mbutler@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2530
Nicole Fry
Managing Director
nfry@cascadiacapital.com
(323) 486-8121
George Sent
Managing Director
gsent@cascadiacapital.com
(612) 336-4121
Scott Porter
Senior Vice President
sporter@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2528
Greg Hill
Vice President
ghill@cascadiacapital.com
(206) 436-2584