Anchor Brewing is open to considering a potential offer from employees looking to buy and save the storied San Francisco brewery.
On July 12, the company announced it would be shutting down operations, prompting its beer to start flying off shelves. The brewery was a pioneer in California’s craft beer scene, founded in 1896 and surviving Prohibition.
Ownership of the brewery has changed over the years and Anchor was most recently purchased in 2017 by Japanese conglomerate Sapporo. However, sales have been down in recent years, forcing the company to scale back and eventually announce its closure earlier this month.
But in the last week and a half, a group of employees have been frantically working to preserve Anchor’s 127-year legacy. And the company now says it’s open to the sale.
“We have received an e-mail from Anchor’s Union spokesperson stating that the workers of Anchor Brewing have met, discussed and decided to launch an effort to purchase the brewery,” company spokesperson Sam Singer said in a statement. “Given our deep respect for the Anchor Union and our team members, should our employees put forward a bonafide, legally binding offer to buy the company, one that includes a verifiable source of funds, we would gladly consider it.”
Singer said the union spokesperson also clarified that the inquiry into purchasing the brewery was on behalf of a group of unidentified employees and not the union itself.
The potential sale of Anchor Brewing, however, comes with a ticking clock as Singer warned that “time is running short” and that the company has plans to move forward with filing for bankruptcy at the beginning of August.
In a tweet Saturday morning, the Anchor Union said it was “overwhelmed with the responses for help.”
“We are working behind the scenes to try and figure out the best possible way to raise funds and actually do this,” the tweet said. “We think this is way bigger than a GoFundMe, and want to be as calculated as possible.”
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