Mission Local has learned that Hamdi Ulukaya, the 51-year-old billionaire founder and CEO of Chobani yogurt, will be the new buyer of Anchor Brewing Company.
Anchor Brewing, founded in San Francisco in 1896 and largely viewed as the progenitor of the American craft beer movement, was shuttered in July by its former owner, Sapporo Breweries Ltd.
Ulukaya’s pending purchase of the brewery was yesterday disclosed to officials at San Francisco City Hall. It is slated to be announced publicly this morning.
The 51-year-old Turkish-born Kurdish businessman has purportedly agreed to buy Anchor Brewing lock, stock and barrel, purchasing its square-block factory on Potrero Hill, its West German-made brewing equipment, and the brewery’s intellectual property. For fans of the city’s signature beer, this will be perceived as a strongly positive development: Anchor had been placed in liquidation by Sapporo, and it was possible that the business would have been essentially stripped for parts.
The emergence of a single buyer harks to Fritz Maytag’s purchase of the moribund Anchor Brewery in 1965.
Ulukaya was born into a Kurdish dairy-farming family in a small Turkish village in 1972. He founded Chobani nearly two decades ago in upstate New York, and has since built it up into a business making billions of dollars in sales yearly. He is an advocate for Kurdish rights, a philanthropist, and has garnered coverage for his generous worker policies at Chobani.
This is a developing story and will be updated as possible.
Hopefully this means they start it back up with a more sustainable modest business plan, business was doing great before the vodka folks tried to juice the value so they could sell to Sapporo— whose interests have become well known and weren’t at all geared toward making the Anchor brand a success. Good sign, we’ll see. Ultimately small ownership group is best for any kinda business like this, when equity gets involved is when everything gets gutted.
Hes the right man for the job. Hope the steam starts flowing!
Great News I hope! Along with good ol Anchor, please bring back Foghorn, Breckel’s Brown, and Winter Wheat!
This is great news…as an aspiring brewmaster student at UC Davis in the early ’90s, the trip to San Francisco to see Anchor Steam was one of the greatest locations and always loved the Maytag operation allowing workers a wealth of freedoms at their work place.
Will never forget the sampling that afternoon. An abundant volume and great conversation of the varieties offered…Can’t wait for more Christmas brews, etc.
Great news. I look forward to getting back into the taproom!
Congratulations Anchor Union ✊🏼 ⚓
Assuming the taproom across the street comes back in its old glory: One thing they need to figure out is Warriors or Giants evening games that go into OT/extra innings – I remember acutely how they used to want to kick everybody out while the game was still on.
Great news, fingers crossed this’ll all work out!
I’m even getting my hopes up they’ll bring back the Summer Wheat. They can drop the highly forgettable IPA creations of the last few years if that’s what it takes.
This is great news for all fans of anchor beer and San Francisco in general. I believe the new ownership will be both proactive with workers, rights and wages, and Will stay true to the vision of Fritz Maytag .what he did with chobani Is legendary, both for product quality, and reviving businesses in upstate New York.
Let’s just hope we get our old labels back!
This is a great leap of faith by a great business person/entrepreneur!