New owners bring turnaround expertise to retooling of Geary Brewing
The new owners of D.L. Geary Brewing Co. are planning some changes to recapture some of Maine’s growing craft brew market.
The Sun Journal reported that Alan and Robin Lapoint, the owners of the Auburn-based Strainrite Cos., a maker of filtration systems, have two new 60-barrel fermenters arriving Thursday. They expect to launch two new beers in May.
The Sun Journal reported the couple’s goal is to bring Geary's back to a production heyday when it was selling at least twice as much beer and to boost marketing to consumers in their 20s and 30s.
Geary's was Maine’s first so-called craft brewery, incorporated in Portland in 1983. The Sun Journal reported the company has seen a drop-off, from 393,769 gallons 2012 to 192,685 gallons in 2016.
Alan Lapoint first met Geary's management 18 months ago when Strainrite sold filters to the company.
"Through the year, I was getting the sense that they were starting to feel the pinch of all the craft brewers that are out there," Lapoint told the paper.
Geary is the fourth company since 2000 that the Lapoints have purchased to turn around. Others include a filter-making competitor in Michigan, a small distribution company in Atlanta and a failing textile business in Connecticut, all of which have seen a turnaround since they were purchased, the paper reported
Ninety-five percent of Geary's sales are within Maine. Lapoint told the paper he’s talking to distributors about expanding its reach.
"They never adjusted their size for the reduction of sales, so they had a lot of excessive overhead for a company that size," he told the paper.
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