B.C. booze baron Anthony von Mandl is scooping up Surrey-based Central City Brewers & Distillers Ltd. out of creditor protection, bettering eight other potential buyers with a bid value that was not made public.
Von Mandl's Mark Anthony Group Inc. is the official buyer, according to court documents that approved the sale Tuesday.
The transaction is set to close on Feb. 28.
"Anthony is picking it up, and he's completely capable," Central City's longtime owner, Darryll Frost, told BIV. "I'm sure he's going to turn it into something rather wonderful."
Von Mandl's Midas touch with alcohol ventures is legendary.
He first gained fame for creating, with staff, in 1996 what von Mandl called the world's first spirit cooler: Mike's Hard Lemonade. He sold the drink across Canada and then reformulated it into a same-named malt beverage to distribute in the U.S. three years later.
His Mission Hill Estate Winery is the jewel of the dozens of wine brands that he owns, as it sits on prime Okanagan real estate with an iconic bell tower modelled after one in California created by one of von Mandl's mentors: Robert Mondavi. Through the years he has, and Martin's Lane Winery.
This is not von Mandl's first foray into beer.
Decades ago, von Mandl created Clark's Great Canadian Beer along with partner Nick Clark. The brand was a wink to the brand's co-founder's name, but it also had a design that paid tribute to explorers Lewis and Clark. The short-lived brand was a strategy for the duo to get rid of hundreds of thousands of scratched stubby brown bottles that von Mandl was left with from a different venture.
He also introduced Grupo Modelo's Corona beer to Canada in 1986. In 2007, the brewer terminated von Mandl's contract.
Undaunted, von Mandl built Turning Point Brewery on Anacis Island.
“It's an insane investment,” . “We put $20 million into building a craft brewery that we could have done for $1 million.”
Von Mandl in the past decade has seen his wealth surge
He created White Claw spiked spritzer in 2016, and watched it become a runaway sensation in the U.S. He had to wait until 2020 to debut the drink outside the U.S. because of a non-compete clause in a 2015 contract with Labatt Breweries of Canada, which he signed when he sold Canadian and international rights for Mike's Hard Lemonade as well as Palm Bay vodka coolers and Okanagan Premium ciders for a reported US$350 million.
The brand then found significant success outside the U.S.
Forbes cited von Mandl's net worth , with that .
One list last year . Compared to other B.C. business titans, that figure put him ahead of the US$5.9 billion estimated net worth for Lululemon Athletica Inc. (Nasdaq:LULU) founder Chip Wilson but behind the US$9.1 billion estimated to be the net worth of Jim Pattison Group owner Jim Pattison.
Central City Brewing entered creditor protection in November.
A monitor then identified 249 parties to potentially buy assets. Of those, 28 signed non-disclosure agreements, of which 26 were deemed to be qualified bidders and were given access to confidential information. Nine of those submitted letters of intent to buy corporate assets by a Dec. 20 deadline.
The monitor analyzed the bids and provided recommendations to lenders to get consent to approve the Mark Anthony Group's bid. An agreement was forged on Feb. 13.