The owners and investors behind a successful local brewery recently listed for sale online have clarified the sale is for a partial stake only and the brewery has no plans to go away.
A listing for Galt-based Farm League Brewing, two separate listings for the business and building at 295 Ainslie St. S., appeared online on Realtor.ca Thursday at a price of $1.68 million and $2.75 million respectively.
Farm League Brewing is owned and operated by Collin McKinnon, Mike Mayo and Matt Boismier along with silent investment partners Gord Campbell and Tyler Campbell, a father and son.
The owner-operators all said they weren’t aware this listing was going to go up prior to a visit by CambridgeToday at the brewery for comment about it.
All have told CambridgeToday that Gord, who also owns the building and leases it to Farm League Brewing, is looking at options for divesting his partial ownership from the business to retire.
McKinnon said in an email statement the business listing is not accurate as the whole business is not for sale.
The listing does not mention it is for partial ownership.
"Own a thriving, well-established craft brewery with Farm League Brewing, located in the vibrant Galt area of Cambridge," the listing's first line stated.
Gord said he was aware the listing was going to go live but said he didn’t “really read the write-up” for the listings, agreeing it doesn’t really read as it being for part ownership.
“I am just looking to see about selling my shares, my kind of portion or maybe most of my portion,” Gord said. “I put the money in to start to get it going and everything and it’s been doing great over the last four some years.”
Now, he said he’s looking to see if somebody is interested in taking over, possibly someone from the industry who can grow the business to the next level.
Tyler confirmed in a phone call he’s not selling his stake in the business and the plan is to continue operations as normal.
Both Campbells said a buyer couldn’t just come in and change everything, with Gord noting the building is zoned to be a brewery and he wasn’t aware of what else could be done with it. Gord said Farm League Brewing has a lease on the property that would carry over to the next owner.
“It’s not our intention at all for somebody to come along and shut it down, these guys have done a great job growing it to where it is,” Gord said.
All the owner-operators also stressed Farm League Brewing has every intention of staying put.
“Nothing is changing that equity percentage doesn’t change anything, we have a long term lease,” McKinnon said.
Boismier said they are going to take a few days to discuss what their options are from here.
“Definitely going to look to do everything we can to make sure Farm League is stronger and whether it be finding a partner or otherwise, going to do as much as we can to look forward to a great spring and summer and keep doing our thing,” Boismier said.