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Less than 4 yrs since agreeing to buy Stone Brewing for $165 mil, Sapporo is selling it off. The buyer is none other than Firestone Walker, living up to its stated ethos as a "California Brewing Company," having recently bought Trumer Pils and previously buying/scaling Cali Squeeze. While it declined significantly in recent yrs, Stone still sold ~250K bbls in 2025 with around 40% of its mix in CA alone, maintaining significant national presence too. So deal catapults Firestone ahead of the pack in CA craftland and up the ladder in CA beer/alc bevs while Firestone and sibling co Duvel USA (both owned by parent co Duvel Moortgat) work together in a new and unique way to make the deal sing across the country. Deal's expected to close sometime in Q2. Firestone will take on Stone brand rights and 4 "hospitality locations" &mdash; World Bistro & Gardens at Liberty Station brewpub and taprooms in San Diego's Little Italy, Oceanside and Pasadena &mdash; as Stone production will gradually move into Firestone's large facility in Paso Robles as well as sibling co Duvel USA's Boulevard facility in Kansas City. Duvel USA will also oversee Stone's distribution and sales presence "east of the Rockies," where Stone still does 40% of its biz, while Firestone maintains focus on CA and the rest of western US including Texas, "as well as national accounts," Firestone Walker CEO Nick Firestone and Duvel USA prexy Seraf De Smedt shared with CBN. Cos also expect "to offer positions to a significant number of Stone Brewing employees across hospitality, sales, and marketing," and production with CA hospitality accounting for a big piece of that. Firestone brewmaster Matt Bryndilson will oversee all production of Stone at both facilities.Sapporo's Getting Out of US Craft While Firestone/Duvel Double Down Sapporo will continue to produce Stone for a "transition period" before it moves to Firestone and Duvel USA by end of year. But Sapporo will ultimately wind down production at Escondido, shift all of Sapporo's US production to Richmond, VA, and look to sell its Escondido facility to a new buyer. So Sapporo's getting out of the US craft beer game altogether as Firestone Walker and its parent co Duvel double down. Between Firestone/Cali Squeeze (430K bbls), Stone (250K bbls), Duvel USA (150K bbls) and Trumer (27K bbls), the Duvel portfolio sold over 850K bbls in 2025. Only AB, Kirin-Lion (New Belgium/Bell's), Sierra Nevada, Boston Beer and Tilray sell more craft beer volume in the US.Unlike Anchor, which flopped under Sapporo and ultimately sold to Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya for pennies on the dollar, Stone deal will have lasting impact for Sapporo's US brewing footprint. But it was an expensive path, having spent $85 mil to acquire Anchor and $165 mil for Stone Brewing, $60 mil invested in production capabilities at Escondido ($20 mil) and Richmond ($40 mil), plus additional investments. Deal terms were not disclosed but safe to assume Firestone is paying considerably less for Stone this time around.Win-Win Regardless of how they got here, deal's positioned as a win-win going forward. Firestone immediately boosts efficiency and fills important portfolio gaps with a natl IPA mainstay while Sapporo puts all of its chips on the fast-growing Sapporo brand in the US, optimizing its Richmond, VA facility in the process. Gotta look at the biz model "with the freshest eyes possible," said Sapporo USA ceo Zach Keeling, and the oppys to "simplify the model" and "get behind the [Sapporo] brand" in a bigger way "outweighed some of the past decisions." Plus, Firestone is a "good home" for the brand, and "we are confident its future is in excellent hands with Firestone Walker and Duvel USA." The Stone portfolio is "very complementary" for Firestone, Nick said separately. "This feels like a natural convergence of iconic craft brands," and "we're committed to maintaining and further building its national relevance," added Seraf. Firestone/Duvel USA have "our homework cut out for us," but "I'm super bullish," said Nick. This is a "strategic acquisition to ensure the long-term viability" of Stone."Active Discussions" to Sell Escondido Brewery and Bistro The final step for Sapporo to be fully "Stone free" (in the words of Jimi Hendrix) is to find a buyer for the Escondido brewery and bistro, which could be a tuff task in a down mkt with lots of excess capacity industry-wide. Yet co's actively lookin' for potential buyers and could go beyond beer as Escondido added to its production capabilities in recent yrs. It's "a flexible facility," Zach assured, with 300-400K bbls of annual capacity. And make no mistake, Sapporo "remain[s] committed to continued investment in the U.S. as a cornerstone of our long-term global growth," stated Sapporo Holdings Ltd evp Rieko Shofu. Plus, there's "an opportunity to look at the entire North American footprint" with Sleeman Brewing's 4 facilities in Canada to "utilize" those assets "as best as we can" thru a "total North American" lens, Zach shared.Distribution Majority Aligned with a Big Gap in SoCal New owner but same conundrum on distrib non-alignment in Stone's home mkt. While Stone is with Hand Family's Sunset Distributing (formerly its own Stone Distributing) in SoCal, Firestone's with Reyes and other indie AB houses there. There's not an "immediate need" to make any changes, Nick told CBN. And excluding SoCal, Firestone and Stone are 90% aligned on distribution west of the Rockies; over 2/3 aligned in the eastern US. So it's not top of the list.Stone Down Over 1/3 from Peak; Sapporo Brand Up 30% in 4 Yrs, +15% YTD in 2026 When Sapporo agreed to buy Stone Brewing in Jun 2022, Stone just came off a tuff stretch of operating losses after certain expansions under VMG ownership didn't pan out and sales declines mounted. In 2019, Stone hit $251 mil in revs with 391K bbls shipped, but lost $12.4 mil in operations that year. In 2020 it slipped to $220 mil in revs, 347K bbls, and oper loss steepened to $15.9 mil. In 2021, sales improved to $231 mil even as shipments dipped but oper loss was still $9.6 mil. Sapporo figured the brewing and restaurant/pub operations would be able to turn a profit with the addition of Sapporo's production volume in coming yrs, which transitioned to Stone's US facilities. Sapporo-Stone collectively produced and shipped well over 600K bbls last year, the first with Sapporo's US volume fully integrated in Richmond and Escondido facilities. Yet Sapporo Holdings took a $90+ mil impairment charge on Stone Brewing in late Jan 2025, citing Stone's "sales volume and recent profit level&hellip;below expectations," the first big indication that things weren't going quite according to plan.While Stone's volume declined significantly, Sapporo brand surged in the US. Sapporo brand grew more than 30% over the last 4 yrs in the US to 385K bbls, currently on pace to surpass 400K bbls in 2026. Its shipments are up 15%-plus to start the year, "ahead of our plan" on orders thru April with "amazing spring resets" and "great programs planned for the rest of the year," Zach touted. Sapporo Premium Draft now ranks as the 84th-largest beer brand by $$ in Circana multi-outlet + convenience data (#60 in foodstores). Its $$ sales are up 17% with volume up 12.6% YTD thru Mar 22 in those channels. The Richmond facility has room for between 700K and 1 mil bbls/yr capacity depending on what beers are being brewed and "no capital is needed" to move all Sapporo US production to Richmond.Cali Squeeze Still Growing Double Digits in 2026 Scans; Firestone, Stone & Trumer Softer to Start Yr When Firestone bought Cali Squeeze from SLO Brewing in 2021, the brand sold just 8K bbls in the prior year. Since then, Cali Squeeze transformed under Firestone to become a near 50K-bbl brand by last yr. It continues to grow double digits in early 2026 scans thru most of Q1. Yet Firestone, Stone and Trumer brands have all seen better days and have been around for far longer. Firestone brand fam slipped to 380K bbls in 2025 and Stone slipped to 250K bbls, well below previous peaks for Firestone at 521K bbls in 2019 and 400K bbls for Stone in 2018. Trumer improved in recent yrs, growing each of the last 5 yrs to 26.8K bbls in 2025. But Trumer volume slipped high-single-digits in Q1 2026 scans, prior to deal with Firestone, while Firestone's down mid singles and Stone's down mid teens.Duvel & Firestone Remain Separately Run There are "no plans" to combine Firestone and Duvel USA operations further, Seraf made very clear in our chat alongside Nick. Both entities have "critical mass" to run "efficient" ops on their own. The 60/40 split of Stone's biz between Firestone and Duvel USA further strengthens both ops. There's naturally "some collaboration on the procurement side," and it's "only logical that will continue."Deal "Just&hellip;Made Good Sense"; No Broader M&A Strategy While Firestone's done two deals in the last mo, and 3 deals in the last 6 yrs, "to me," it's "not a result of" a broader "M&A strategy," Nick shared. It's "just a result of that they made good sense." Co had "industry connections" with the Sapporo USA team and simply, the deals "made sense so we did them," he continued. "We're not doing this for any reason other than we think it's a great opportunity."

Turning Over a New Stone: Firestone Set to Acquire Stone Brand Rights & Select Hospitality from Sapporo; Duvel USA Chipping In; Escondido Facility For Sale as Sapporo Shifts US Production to Richmond

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