Have you ever dreamed of owning your own brewery but dread the thought of building one from the ground up? If so, then the perfect solution is to purchase an existing brewery, like Morgan Street Brewery in St. Louis Missouri, presently for sale at the bargain price of $1 million.
Steve Owings and Dennis Hopper founded Morgan Street Brewery in 1995 and have carried the torch ever since. The brewpub was listed for sale last year for $2.4 million, but no one accepted the offer. To pique interest from possible buyers, Owings and Hopper have now cut the offer to the bargain basement level of $1 million, a reduction of almost sixty percent from the original asking price.
Morgan Street Brewery is, by most accounts, a small operation. According to the St. Louis Post- Dispatch, the brewery produces only 800 barrels annually, a mere sliver of the production level of other St. Louis craft breweries like Schlafly, which churns out 60,000 barrels each year.
Still, Owings and Harper are quick to point out that Morgan Street Brewery has many other qualities going for it as a business, as well as great potential. Morgan Street Brewery has a solid catering operation and its beers are now more widely distributed than before. And with the craft beer boom still in full swing across the nation, Morgan Street Brewing has the potential to ride the industry coattails and expand sales and production for many years.
Owings and Harper are, however, aware of some of the breweries shortcomings, one of which is the location, in Laclede’s Landing. This area doesn’t receive the amount of activity it once did and the decline has had an impact on sales.
“We did about $3,500 yesterday when we should have done $5,000”, Owings told the St. Louis Post- Dispatch on Wednesday, June 17, 2015.
The reason for the decline in local interest for Laclede’s Landing is due mainly to street and sidewalk closures relating to renovations of the Gateway Arch. Once the renovations are completed, however, business could easily return to or exceed previous levels.
Owings and Harper are ready to retire and are convinced that the new, lower price tag will attract a buyer- someone with the ambition and expertise to lift Morgan Street Brewery to even greater heights.
“We want to hand the business off to someone to take it to the next level,” said Owings. “There’s someone out there with the brains and energy to do it.”
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