Hannah Wyman
Local craft brewer O’Fallon Brewery has put its equipment up for auction after quietly ceasing operations earlier this year.
The company, known for its autumnal beers, filed for bankruptcy protection last summer as a result of pandemic-era economic challenges.
Jim Gorczyca, president and CEO of O’Fallon Brewery, told the Post-Dispatch that the business wasn’t able to bounce back like he had hoped.
Now, fermentation tanks, grain silos, conveyor belts, hoses, boxes of glass bottles, office desks and more are open for bidding on BidSpotter, an online auction site for industrial goods. Bids start at $5.
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Gorczyca said they were in discussions with a potential buyer for over a year but couldn’t close on a deal.
The company closed its restaurant, the O’Bar, in February, stopped brewing beer in May and sold the Maryland Heights building in August. Last summer, the over 38,000-square-foot warehouse at 45 Progress Parkway was listed at nearly $3 million.
Gorczyca said he hopes to offload all the equipment up for auction by the end of October.
“Our pumpkin beer is so popular I think fans are finally starting to figure out that we’re closed,” Gorczyca said. “I really hoped and strongly believed that we would sell (the business) and life would go on.”
O’Fallon Brewery’s closure comes at a tough time for the craft brewing industry. According to the Brewers Association, which represents small and independent craft brewers, the market is down 2% for the first half of 2024. This is following a year where national craft beer production decreased in 2023 by 1% and the overall beer market decreased over 5%.
Consumers are, in part, opting for drinks like canned cocktails and seltzers. An increasing number are giving up alcohol.
Brewers Association data also found that openings of craft breweries decreased in 2023 for the second year in a row — and the closing rate for craft breweries grew to 4%.
Like for many other industries, the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll.
Gorczyca said the brewery’s demise was due to a domino effect. After being closed for six months during lockdown, the business opened back up at only 50% capacity. However, the restaurant saw low sales as employees of nearby businesses — the restaurant’s customers — worked from home. Other beer companies O’Fallon Brewery bottled for went out of business, with debt to the brewer, and the company’s interest rates jumped to from 6% to 11%.
“For a bunch to come down at once was too big to get past,” Gorczyca said. “It’s been challenging for craft brewers post-COVID.”
Plus, now tastes have changed and consumers are more interested in seltzers and other non-beer beverages, something that wholesalers are responding to.
“Wholesalers have more brands and more lines than ever before,” Gorczyca said. “Craft beer did lose some movement with new beverages on the market.”
Earlier this month, a plumbing company sued O’Fallon Brewery for unpaid construction work and material. The contractor said that they are owed about $4,800. Gorczyca said he was unfamiliar with the case.
Despite the shuttering, Gorczyca said he hopes to one day bring back O’Fallon Brewery brands that consumers know and love. At its peak, O’Fallon Brewery beer could be found across the Midwest and into Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Also earlier this month, Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. filed for bankruptcy protection. That brewer is facing lawsuits for unpaid loans; bankruptcy filings show that the brewer owes over $4 million. Like O’Fallon Brewery, Urban Chestnut cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor that led to financial pressures.
O’Fallon Brewery was founded in 2000 by Tony and Fran Caradonna. Gorczyca, a former Anheuser-Busch marketing executive, bought the company in 2011.
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Hannah Wyman
Retail Reporter
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