Just a week after closing its Virginia Beach brewery and a foreclosure by its largest lender, Green Flash Brewing Company has been sold to new investors.
The sale closed Friday, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. WC IPA LLC will take over the company, which struggled with debt after opening its $20 million Virginia Beach brewery in November of 2016.
Mike Hinkley, Green Flash’s former CEO, attributed Green Flash’s troubles to several factors, including the logistics of operating on both coasts and a recent stagnation in the craft beer industry.
“After a general slowdown in the craft beer industry, coupled with intense competition and a slowdown of our business, we could not service the debt that we took on to build the Virginia Beach brewery, and in early 2018, the Company defaulted on its loans with Comerica Bank,” Hinkley wrote in a note to Green Flash shareholders.
Hinkley, who started Green Flash 16 years ago, will be vice president under the new company. Chris Ross, who came in as president in 2016, will step down. The company also announced several other changes at senior positions.
In their current configurations, Green Flash Brewery Company Inc. and its sister company, Alpine Beer Co., will be dissolved, according to Hinkley.
Meanwhile, Green Flash says it will focus on its west coast operations under new ownership and move forward with the opening of a Green Flash Brewhouse & Eatery in Lincoln, Nebraska.
As for the former Green Flash brewery in Virginia Beach, Comerica Bank is looking for options to sell the building, Hinkley told Green Flash shareholders.