Dive Brief:
- The investor behind Pabst Brewing Co. is in talks to sell the brewer to a consortium led by private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, according to the Wall Street Journal.
- C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., which acquired Pabst in 2010, has been looking to sell the brewer for about six months. Metropoulos is an active trader of food and beverage companies, having invested over the years in Twinkies, Vitaminwater, Vlasic, and more.
- In addition to its namesake Pabst Blue Ribbon, the brewer owns a slew of older beer brands in America, including Colt 45, Schlitz, and Old Milwaukee. Recently, it announced it would revive the legendary Ballantine Ale brand.
Dive Insight:
Pabst Blue Ribbon has become synonymous with a particular demographic: The young, urban dwellers popularly known as hipsters. And given how loaded the term "hipsters" is, particularly among people to whom the term applies, Pabst Blue Ribbon has acquired an air of controversy too.
But there's no need to spend a lot of time on weighing the cultural significance of PBR. What's worth noting here is that Pabst is popular for a number of reasons, including a remarkably effective stealth marketing campaign and it's dirt cheap price tag.
But the effective life of any marketing campaign is limited, and marketing Pabst as the anti-corporate beer will likely run its course. Should PBR return to its roots as an extremely low cost beer (like Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, etc.) Pabst Brewing's revenue might tank.
So this may be the exact right time to sell Pabst Brewing. Certainly Metropoulos thinks so.