Opened in 2002, Feral Brewing is based in Swan Valley in Perth.
“Making innovative premium quality beers that are well executed and have high drinkability is what the team here loves to do and what consumers admire most about us,” said founder and head brewer Brendan Varis.
“But a growing business is a hungry one. We have a lot of future plans for the business which, if Feral needed to rely on my personal balance sheet to fund, would take years to execute.”
‘I have taken the business as far as I can on my own’
Varis says the brewery’s mission will continue to be ‘making beer we love to drink’; but with help from Amatil to scale up operations.
Why sell?
“This is not a decision that I have taken lightly and not one that I expect to regret one little bit.
"We had a lot of future plans for the business which, if Feral needed to rely on my personal balance sheet to fund, would have taken years to execute” - Feral Brewing founder.
"The beer business at Amatil is still relatively young. Due to that, their focus is very much about building brands, which is exactly what Feral needs currently,” continued Varis.
“With the bigger team behind us we will be able to expand our innovation program and have access to a distribution network that will put our beers in front of thousands more craft beer consumers.
“This has been an amazing 15-year journey for us but I feel I have taken the business as far as I can on my own.
"Having the support of Amatil will allows us to fulfil some of our future goals and ambitions of Feral far sooner than we could have otherwise contemplated.”
Alcohol ‘key driver’ for Coca-Cola Amatil
Coca-Cola Amatil identifies its alcohol and coffee business as a key driver for future business growth. It identifies high end Australian craft beer as being one in strong growth, ‘playing perfection into its long term beer strategy to build our business to scale through credible beers that really resonate with today’s consumers’.
Coca-Cola Amatil’s portfolio includes Yenda craft beer and Pressman’s ciders; while it also brews and distributes Coors (known as Coors Light in the US) and Blue Moon in Australia in partnership with Molson Coors.
Coca-Cola Amatil Group managing director, Alison Watkins, said: “The Alcohol and Coffee business is an important part of Amatil’s future growth plans and this new relationship with Feral Brewing is a really exciting step for us in the fast-growing craft beer segment.”
Shane Richardson, the head honcho of their Alcohol & Coffee business, added: “We saw a great opportunity to add this outstanding craft beer range into our portfolio, along with the team led by Brendan and Gabrielle who have built Feral Brewing Co. to be recognised as one the most respected craft breweries in Australia.
“They have done an amazing job with Feral, in our opinion it’s the flag bearer for craft brewing and we are really looking forward to working with Brendan, the team and the brands to see what we can do together in the future.”
Feral says it will be ‘business as usual’ for the brewery, with the same team remaining in place.