Dogfish Head Craft Brewery announced today it has sold a 15 percent stake in the company to a New York-based private equity firm, LNK Partners.
In announcing the deal, Dogfish Head co-founder Sam Calagione said his company plans to eventually repurchase LNK’s share. The cash infusion now will allow Dogfish Head to continue growing. The company recently completed a $50 million expansion, financed primarily through bank debt.
“We lived through the first great shakeout of the craft era in the late 90s as brewers, beer geeks and mom-and-pop entrepreneurs,” Calagione told Brewbound. “Now as we go into the next most highly competitive moment in our industry, I see that it is not just home brewers and mom-and-pop entrepreneurs navigating this moment next to us.â€
LNK will have one of five voting seats on the Dogfish Head board.