Skinny margins, a dominant big five - why would anyone invest in craft brewing?

Meet Mark Williams, who may just have a winning formula for buying businesses in the brewing industry

Hello Rainmakers,

We love delving in and understanding just what it is that drives a business strategy. 

When it comes to mergers and acquisitions everyone will tell you it’s ultimately about the cold hard numbers and making financial sense of a deal. 

But then sometimes it’s initially just about gut feel, the love of a brand, and a desire to bring common business sense to a sector that looks broken.

Anna Cooper’s story today about the Breal Group’s ambition to become a £100m brewery and pub group by 2028 is full of insight, wisdom and the search for alchemy. 

It reads like the best pub crawl ever, if you like ale, but it’s a fascinating business journey.

RAINMAKERS CONFERENCE IS BACK IN 2025

The art of such deals is just the sort of thing which will pepper our 2025 Rainmakers Conference.

It’s being supported by BGF, Dow Schofield Watts, NorthEdge, Palatine, Shawbrook, Squire Patton Boggs, while PHD Industrial Holdings is a breakout room partner.

So save the date for Rainmakers 2025 –  Wednesday 26 March, 2025 – and secure your place today at The Point, Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester.

It will bring more opportunities to network, more amazing speakers, more candid debate, more inspiring entrepreneurs, but also a chance to discuss the challenges of value creation.

The first Rainmakers Conference this March sold out, with more than 400 people attending to hear the insights and perspectives from entrepreneurs, investors and advisors, and to network with senior figures from across the corporate finance community.

Today’s story is for our Rainmakers subscribers, it’s the kind of fresh, detailed and genuinely insightful content we are committed to bringing you.

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BREAL AMBITIONS AREN’T SMALL BEER

by Anna Cooper

There’s something about pubs, breweries and football clubs that gets the interest up.

And so it was that curiosity killed that cat for industrial group Breal, as it ventured away from what it knew about steel and aviation, and stepped into the world of breweries. 

Along the way they’ve bought Black Sheep, Purity, Brew By Numbers, and Brick Brewery (pictured, below). But how did they get here, and how far can they grow?

First of all, Black Sheep Brewing came on the horizon, and Breal couldn’t help but take a look. 

Brent Osborne and Alan McLaren founded Breal in 2013 using the beginning initials of each of their names.

And while they may have a midas touch in the metals world including in Pulman & Son in West Yorkshire, one of the most recent deals we’ve covered on TheBusinessDesk.com has been the bringing together of two businesses in the ladder manufacturing sector. In a deal worth £6.5m, equipment manufacturing business Lyte in Swansea (backed by Breal) merged with rival LFI, from Gloucestershire.

Mark Williams, CEO of Breal and its new brewing group Keystone, told Rainmakers that Breal wasn’t in the market for a brewery at all, but the partners really liked the brand and with its finances in dire straits, Black Sheep deserved the opportunity to move forward.