Chobani Yogurt founder buys Anchor Brewing Company

The billionaire owner of yogurt company Chobani said Friday that he has acquired Anchor Brewing Company, the San Francisco brewer that went out of business last year after 127 years.

Hamdi Ulukaya, who is also the CEO of Chobani. He said in a video clip posted on social media He’s looking forward to bringing Anchor Brewing back to life. The price Mr Ulukaya paid to acquire the brewing company’s assets from the liquidator was not disclosed.

Anchor, said to be America’s oldest craft beer company, announced it will close its doors in July 2023, citing the effects of the pandemic, inflation and a highly competitive beer market.

Anchor spokesman Sam Singer said Friday that the company was “very pleased” with the acquisition.

“He’s a perfect fit from a practical standpoint,” Singer said of Mr. Ulukaya, a Turkish native who helped bring Greek yogurt into the U.S. mainstream.

“We believe he will have the same magic touch in taking a historic brewery and revitalizing it for future San Franciscans,” he said.

Founded in 1896, Angkor has survived earthquakes and fires, but was briefly closed during Prohibition. It is beloved by many Americans, and is often credited with spurring the resurgence of craft beer in the 1960s.

But by 2016, its sales were declining, and in 2017, the company’s sales declined It was received For about $85 million by Japanese beer giant Sapporo. Singer said last year that the pandemic was particularly troublesome, noting that 70 percent of Anchor beer was sold in restaurants and bars. Adaptation efforts, including a rebranding campaign Criticized by long-time customersThe shift to bottling and canning more beer to sell in grocery stores “cannot make up for the significant loss in sales,” he said.

The company’s unionized employees offered to buy the brewery and operate it as a cooperative to keep it in business.

Mr. Ulukaya founded Chobani in 2005, a little more than a decade after he arrived in the United States with $3,000 in his pocket. He bought a shuttered yogurt factory in New Berlin, New York, with a Small Business Administration loan, and the first Chobani cups hit store shelves in 2007.

In 2015, Mr. Ulukaya announced that he had acquired a stake in La Colombe Coffee Roasters, the Philadelphia-based upscale coffee brand and purveyor of canned cold brew and lattes. Chobani It took over La Colombe Last December for $900 million.

By 2023, Mr. Ulukaya said, Chobani, which is privately owned, had sales of more than $2 billion.

Announcing Mr. Ulukaya’s acquisition of Anchor Brewing Company He was cheerful By Mayor London Breed of San Francisco, while critics questioned whether the company would be able to maintain its role as a fixture in the community under new ownership.

Esther Mobley, senior wine critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, Anchor’s signature beer, he wroteSteam was “an expression of the city’s unique atmosphere.”