Famous Sydney Brewhouse Sold
In its first foray into Sydney, hospitality developer and operator the Signature Hospitality Group has acquired the award-winning All Hands Brewing House on King St Wharf in Darling Harbour for $20 million.
Signature Group’s brands include restaurant chains The Sporting Globe and TGI Fridays as well as the Foresters Restaurant and Bar in Brisbane and the WJ Wills eatery in South Melbourne. It has long been looking for the ideal site to potentially launch the brands in Sydney with the All Hands Brewing House providing a nice adjunct to the first of its sports themed establishments.
The deal was brokered by JLL Hotels and Hospitality’s National Director John Musca with the sellers being the Red Rock Leisure Group. Musca also brokered last year’s sale of the Australian Hotel and Brewery in Rouse Hill for $50 million to the Redcape Hotel Group. With a 2 million litre production capacity Redcape is now distributing the beer throughout its venue network with an overwhelming public response.
Voted Best Independent Brewery NSW 2019 and Best Brewpub Australia 2019, All Hands has fast become a staple for Barangaroo employees, residents and tourists. Craft breweries are the fastest growing category in the pubs sector with a new craft brewery opening every week in Australia.
The industry has grown at nearly 10% a year for the past six years with 52 new breweries, brew pubs and contract brewers opening in 2018, bringing the total number of craft ale producers to 585, a 197% increase since 2011. Industry revenue is expected to increase to $604 million by June 2020.
Musca said the All Hands Brewing House is a rare combination of state-of-the-art microbrewery, unique event space and the best beer garden on King Street Wharf.
“A microbrewery has been on the site since 2004 and it underwent a major rebuild in 2017 to become the highly desirable site it is today,” he said.
“Craft breweries are rapidly becoming an essential part of, if not expanding, the Australian hospitality experience with the intensified merger and acquisition activity testimony to the increased capital drawn to the space” Musca said. “The breweries are driving a new level of beverage engagement, building brand stories and customer relationships that create a dedicated following.”
Many of the major breweries have been buying into the sector in recent years with Asahi buying Queensland craft brewer Green Beacon Brewing in August and CUB buying Manly’s 4 Pines and Adelaide-based Pirate Life in 2017. Independent brewer Tribe acquired Mornington Peninsula Brewery in August 2018.
Independent Scottish brewer, BrewDog, set up its first Australian operation last month at Murarrie site on the Brisbane River – its 94th venue - as it looks to become the number one craft brewer in the world.
Named DogTap, the new venue stocks several Queensland craft beers including Balter which was founded by surfing mates Bede Durbridge, Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson. Balter itself was sold for an undisclosed sum in December last year to CUB.
The Palaszczuk Government recently announced it was investing $1.1 million over five years to deliver Australia’s first BrewLab which will give craft brewers the ability to develop and test new beer recipes without interrupting their own production lines.
It will also be home to Queensland’s first-ever TFE course in brewing, with applications for Certificate III in Food Processing (Brewing) opening in 2020. The Queensland Government has also developed the Queensland Craft Beer Strategy to drive the continued economic development of an independent craft brewing industry.
JLL Hotels and Hospitality, 20th February 2020
