Cerveceria Costa Rica to buy North American Breweries for $388 million

Cerveceria Costa Rica yesterday agreed to buy North American Breweries (NAB), the largest independently-owned beer company in the US, for $388 million in cash, from its owner KPS Capital Partners, LP.

Cerveceria Costa Rica, a unit of Florida Ice and Farm Co S.A., is buying NAB from private equity firm KPS Capital Partners.

Based in Rochester, New York, NAB was formed in 2009 by KPS Capital. The company owns and operates five US breweries and six retail locations in New York, Vermont, California, Oregon and Washington.

NAB is one of the largest independently owned beer companies in the US and brews, packages, imports, markets and sells its branded product portfolio through an independent network of wholesalers throughout the US.

NAB's portfolio of brands includes: the Labatt brands, the Genesee brands, Seagram's Escapes, Magic Hat, Pyramid, the Original Honey Brown Lager, Dundee Ales & Lagers and MacTarnahan's. NAB also performs contract brewing of beer and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages on behalf of other companies.

Its flagship brewery, the Genesee Brewery is one of the largest and longest continually-operating breweries in the US.