Sapporo Holdings has agreed to offload Stone Brewing assets to Firestone Walker and another US subsidiary of the Belgian brewer Duvel Moortgat.
In a release today (21 April), Sapporo said the deal includes the craft beer brand’s intellectual property rights and assets linked to Stone Brewing’s hospitality business.
Sapporo is also making changes to its production in the US. The Japanese group plans to make its plant in Richmond its “core production base” for its namesake products.
The company is to “consolidate all US production” at Richmond. As a consequence, its site in Escondido in California will stop making Sapporo and Stone brands by the end of the year.
The transfer of the assets to Firestone Walker and the unnamed Duvel Moortgat subsidiary is scheduled to take place next month. Sapporo said it expects to gain around $23m from the deal.
Sapporo said today when it acquired Stone Brewing in 2022 it aimed “to accelerate the growth of the Sapporo brand in the US market and expand its North American operations by leveraging Stone Brewing’s two production bases”.
However, the company said “total demand across the entire US beer market trended downward” after the Stone deal, “reflecting developments such as higher prices due to inflation and diversification of consumer preferences”.
“This declining demand was compounded by factors including increasing competition and higher costs, making the operating environment increasingly challenging,” Sapporo added.
Nevertheless, sales of Sapporo’s namesake brand “have continued to grow robustly” in the US, the company said, which has prompted the business to focus its resources on the brand.
Just Drinks has contacted Firestone Walker and Duvel for comment on the transaction.
Sapporo outlined changes to improve the performance of its US beer business last year after an impairment on the unit weighed on group profits in its accounts for 2024.
At the time, the group said said it had “already started to take some specific actions” to bolster its US arm. “Restructuring the US business is an urgent issue for the future growth of the overseas alcoholic beverages business,” it added at the time.
Sapporo then said it planned to “optimise operating rates” at its production plants on the West and East Coasts of the US. The group also said it was “increasing operational efficiency through workforce optimisation” and replacing SKUs.
In 2025, Sapporo booked Y506.86bn in group revenue, a 1.1% decline on the year prior. Core operating profit increased 48.5% to Y25bn.
The company has forecast post-impairment losses and connected expenses from the deal and production changes in the US of around $80m for the six months to the end of June. Sapporo said this is primarily due “to a write-down of the carrying amount of assets relating to the [Escondido] plant”.
Sapporo added it expected the sale of the assets and the production re-jig would have a “negligible” impact on its consolidated earnings forecast for 2026 “as certain structural reform costs were already factored into the forecast”.
“Sapporo to sell Stone Brewing assets” was originally created and published by Just Drinks, a GlobalData owned brand.
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