Hawkers Beer and White Bay Brewery have joined forces as the founding brands of newly-established Social Drinks Group, in a merger that allows the breweries to maintain independence amid challenging market conditions.
Bringing together the two well-established breweries, the primary goal of the new entity is combining their expertise and passion to enhance their portfolios and leverage their localities.
Joining Social Drinks Group as CEO, Judd Michel brings a wealth of beverage industry experience having held positions at CCA and Heineken. He told Beer & Brewer that the two brands are in a great position to join forces.
“You’ve got a Melbourne brand which is entrenched quite strong with a cult-like following, and you have an up-and-coming Sydney brand. I think the opportunity there is the synergies of putting the two parties together, so we get better efficiencies in our frontline sales, better efficiencies in marketing and supply chain, and get to sell both brands across the border.
“I think it’s a win-win for White Bay and Hawkers, for the trade, and for the entity, where we can all come together and make a difference. We have a brand portfolio now where publicans, small bars, or bottle shops will deal with one person.
“We can now sell the full portfolio and offer more brands to customers in one sitting, and you’ll see an enhanced investment in marketing behind both brands and execution at store level.”
A shared vision
Explaining how the partnership came to be, Hawkers Beer Founder Mazen Hajjar says he and White Bay Brewing’s Founders, Adam Trippe-Smith and Tim Condon, were all united in their mission to scale their breweries while staying true to their ethos and principles.
“This is a great outcome for two seriously independent companies to have a shared resource, shared vision, and ensure that we’re able to maintain all of those beautiful things we had when we started our businesses,” Hajjar told Beer & Brewer.
“The merger means we’re able to produce at scale, increase our efficiencies, and on the sales side, overlay into our networks while still maintaining our independence and being relevant to our local markets.”
Trippe-Smith added: “We’re both passionate local breweries with a similar ethos in having everyday approachable beers combined with a really interesting limited-release program, and that combined with our regional province where we’re not overlapping, and strong production capacity at each brewery, gives us the ability to have a united sales force and an expanded portfolio.
“Being a larger business also give us the ability to bring in someone of the calibre of Judd as CEO, and some fresh blood. It’s great to have a professional, long-established beverage CEO coming in to lead the next chapter.”
Bringing their operations under the Social Drinks Group umbrella means both breweries benefit from enhanced production capabilities, using Hawker’s seven-million litre facility in Melbourne and White Bay’s two-million litre facility in Sydney. Beer fans can also expect collaborative limited-release beers from Hawkers and White Bay.
Trippe-Smith says: “It’s a focus that took us a while to really bed down, but something we’re giving a lot more life to is our real focus on lagers. Hawkers are well known for their IPAs and their West Coast IPAs, so we both bring different things to it, but we’re excited about letting brewers share ideas on limited releases and in the very near future, certainly early in February when Social Drinks Group kicks off, you’ll see the first collaboration brew between Hawkers and White Bay.”
The future of Social Drinks Group
Social Drinks Group, set to begin trading on February 1, 2025, has already raised $1.5m of new capital to fuel growth in its Melbourne and Sydney hubs. According to Michel, the immediate focus for the entity is bringing the two brands into one house and engaging the different teams.
“The short term goal will be getting the teams working well together across the board, looking for synergies and efficiencies, and then driving increased volume. But we are seeking further transactions, whether it be mergers, acquisitions or brand distribution agreements.
“Right now, we’re focused on the Australian market, what we do here and doing it well, but we will probably look for a further acquisition this year at least, and in year two we’ll reassess where we’re at.”