Brick Brewing to sell Waterloo brewery for $4M

Brick Brewing has agreed to sell its Waterloo property at 181 King Street for $4 million to HIP developments.

George Croft, president and CEO of Brick Brewing Co., said the deal is expected to close at the end of the fiscal third quarter, after which the company plans to lease the property back for a maximum of two years. Croft said that the lease will not be renewed, nor will the property be re-purchased.

Instead, Brick Brewing plans to expand its Bingemans Centre Drive location by adding a full brewery and retail site, and moving all brewers to the new location in Kitchener. Currently, the Kitchener facility is only used for packaging and distribution. Croft said the company doesn't anticipate any job losses.

"We presently have three operating facilities. We have the facility in Waterloo, we have a fully functional brewery in Fermosa and we have the packaging-distribution warehousing facility in Kitchener. Certainly, a brewer our size, we don't need three operating facilities," said Croft. "Waterloo quickly got eliminated simply because we obviously don't have a significant amount of property. The building we're in presently could not accommodate packaging, and or warehousing and or shipping."

The Waterloo facility is Brick Brewing's original site, where the company began to brew beer in 1984.

Brick Brewing said HIP Developments is "expected to pursue re-development of the site," but did not provide details.

At the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2015, Brick Brewing reported net revenues of $7.5 million, compared to net revenues at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2014, which were $8.8 million.

"This is about building a new brewhouse that's going to allow us to be more competitive and sustainable. We think this is a good news story," said Croft.