USA, LA & FL: Urban South Brewing buying Florida-based Perfect Plain Brewing Company

Urban South Brewery, the 6-year-old beer-maker based on Tchoupitoulas Street, is buying Perfect Plain Brewing Company, a small craft beer operation in Pensacola, Florida, nola.com reported on September 27.

The acquisition is the second deal by an area craft brewer in the past week, after Gayle Benson-owned Faubourg Brewing Co. said it is merging with a group of breweries owned by an Alabama-based private equity investor that will increase overall volume to five times what Faubourg was brewing.

Jacob Landry, who founded Urban South with Kyle Huling, said their acquisition — the company's first — is part of an expansion plan that includes growing sales by almost one-third next year.

"The value we know we can add is to launch (Perfect Plain) into our distribution network, and together we plan to hit 30,000 barrels in 2023," Landry said. "That would put is in or close to the top 100 craft brewers in the country."

The terms of the deal between Urban South and Perfect Plain, both private companies, was not disclosed.

Urban South, whose top-selling beer is the Paradise Park American lager label, has seen its volume grow sharply in the last three years. In 2019, it opened a second brewery and an 11,000 square foot taproom in Houston.

The company has gone from selling exclusively in Louisiana three years ago to having distribution, through the Anheuser-Busch network, in Texas, Mississippi, south Alabama, and Tennessee.

Urban South's sales of almost 21,000 barrels last year was up about 12% from the year before, according to Bart Wilson, chief economist of the Brewers Association, the professional body for craft brewers.

Wilson said the craft brewing segment, which has grown quickly over the past decade, is ripe for consolidation as overall demand plateaus.

There are now about 9,300 craft brewers in the country, ranging from the top operator, D. G. Yuengling & Son, selling two million barrels a year, to many tiny players selling only a couple hundred barrels.

Perfect Plain falls into the latter category, with sales estimated by the Brewers Association at about 540 barrels.

"We don't have private equity dollars or the deepest pockets but we can grow in a more organic and measured way," said Landry.

As well as new beer offerings from Perfect Plain, whose flagship beer is Holy Spin, an IPA, the main attraction of the company is its cluster of high-end venues in downtown Pensacola, including the main, 10-barrel brewhouse in a historic building with long communal tables.

It will also add a new state to distribute Urban South's products in another holiday destination. And they'll likely have some political support in the area: Perfect Plain co-founder D.C. Reeves was recently elected mayor of Pensacola.

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