O’Fallon Brewery is looking for investors to buy a stake in the business.
The craft brewer, which produces 6,358 barrels of beer from two plants, is in need of a cash infusion, said Fran Caradonna, who founded the business 11 years ago with her husband, Tony.
“We’ve been hauling along the losses from 2007 to 2008,” she said. “We do have to get this problem solved quickly, or it’s going to slow down our growth.”
O’Fallon, which has a staff of seven, produces draft beer at its O’Fallon, Mo., facility. It contracts with The Stevens Point Brewery in Wisconsin to make its bottled beers.
The fast-growing craft brewing industry had sales of nearly $7 billion, or 6.9 percent of the U.S. dollar volume in 2009, according to the Brewers Association, a craft beer organization in Boulder, Colo.
Bill Reichhardt, vice president of operations for distributor Missouri Beverage Co. Inc., said O’Fallon’s beers have been among the fastest growing in sales of the 40 craft beers that his company distributes.
St. Louis Brewery, the largest of the local craft beer businesses, generated $13 million in sales last year, producing 35,000 barrels of Schlafly Beer and operating two restaurants.
Read more: Caradonnas seek O’Fallon Brewery partners | St. Louis Business Journal