Reuters: Sweetwater Brewing may be going public

SweetWater Brewing’s appointments of new CEO Kim Jones and new CFO Bill Waters may just be the first moves in a new era of growth for the Southern powerhouse. Reuters reports that Sweetwater is moving forward with an IPO, making it one of the few public craft brewing companies (and maybe the most “craft beer” of those craft brewing companies), joining Boston Beer (Sam Adams) and the Craft Brew Alliance.

From Reuters:

SweetWater, backed by private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, is in talks with investment banks about a stock market flotation that could come later this year and value the company in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the people said this week.

The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. SweetWater and TSG declined to comment.

Sweetwater is already listed at No. 18 on the top craft breweries list (by volume) and expanding into new markets constantly. All of this follows the brewery’s significant $19 million expansion a year prior.