Anheuser-Busch buys Goose Island beer company

Anheuser-Busch buys Goose Island beer company
Flickr/Clint McMahon
Anheuser-Busch buys Goose Island beer company
Flickr/Clint McMahon

Anheuser-Busch buys Goose Island beer company

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Chicago-based Goose Island has agreed to be acquired by Anheuser-Busch in a deal worth $38.8 million. The companies announced the acquisition on Monday.

In a statement, the head of Goose Island, John Hall, said the Chicago company has grown so rapidly in the last five years that demand for Goose Island beers has outgrown the capacity of its brewery. Hall said the company has had to limit production of some of the beers. Hall said the deal with Anheuser-Busch will help Goose Island continue to grow.

“Chicago is going to continue to be our principle market,” Hall said. “We will probably expand into some new markets, but we’re not going to do any of those things until we supply the markets we’re in right now.”

Hall said Goose Island’s roughly 120 employees will still operate in Chicago. Hall also said the beers will remain the same and that he wouldn’t have agreed to the deal if it involved changing the recipes.

In announcing the acquisition, Goose Island said Hall will continue to be responsible for the Chicago brewery, which the company says will remain in operation.

Some of the beers Goose Island brews include Honkers Ale, 312 Urban Wheat Ale and Matlida.

The deal still needs the approval of regulators, which is expected to come later this year.