So, the guy who once owned the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer company died with what he believed to be his small, dwindling beer company in 1987. In a seemingly last-ditch noble effort, this previous owner, Paul Kalmanovitz, pawned the company off to a charitable foundation shortly before he passed. Well, the IRS isn't too cool about non-for-profit organizations owning for-profit companies so they gave Pabst a 2005 deadline to sell the company to, well, anyone who could profit from Pabst and not be sharing a prison cell with Bernie Madoff for doing it.
2005 came and went, no buyers were found, and the deadline got extended.
Then, something happened. Hipsters, scenesters, fauxhemians, whatever you want to call them, started to REALLY like P.B.R. Looking back, it was really a match made in heaven; Trust-funded hipsters, drunk on the latest vintage flannel and blue-collar fashion ethos, paired with a charity-funded brew notorious for its working-class, blue-collar-ness. What other inanimate foodtstuff could validate a delusional sense of working-class like an ironic, cheap can of beer?
Well, this trendy bump was enough to boost Pabst's sales approximately 30% last year and finally attract a buyer.
Last fall, the company hired Bank of America/Merrill Lynch to explore a sale — somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million.
Now, the company has reached a deal to sell itself for $250 million, this morning's WSJ reports. The buyer is C. Dean Metropoulos, a food magnate who built consumer brands including Vlasic Pickles and Bumble Bee Tuna.
(via NPR)
Mmmmm....beer, pickles, and tuna. Breakfast of champions.
