New Age completes acquisition of brands within reach

The global company will remain headquartered in Denver, Colorado with major operations in Shanghai, Tokyo, Taipei, Stockholm, Munich, and Utah.

New Age Beverages Corporation, the Colorado-based organic and natural products company has announced the closing of the acquisition of Brands Within Reach (BWR), Inc., a New York-based marketing, sales, and distribution company including the licensing or distribution rights to some of the world’s leading beverage brands including Nestea, Illy Ready-to-Drink Coffee, Volvic and Evian premium waters, and other healthy brands. 

BWR owns key licensing and distribution rights in the United States for healthy positioned and fast growing beverages such as Nestea Ready to Drink teas, Volvic Natural Spring Water, Illy Ready to Drink Coffee in retail channels, Evian Natural Spring Water in the Natural Channel and Found Sparkling beverages , Kusmi Tea, Saint-Géron Sparkling Water and select natural and organic snacks such as Nature Addicts, Grand-Mere, Lucien Georgelin and La Mere Poulard.

Consideration for the transaction was $2.5 million which was utilized to eliminate 100% of BWR’s debt, plus a $500,000 payment to the sellers. We will also issue up to 700,000 restricted shares of New Age common stock which may be reduced following a final working capital covenant calculation. BWR will be bringing a portfolio of healthy brands to New Age which is expected to add greater than $15 million in net revenue on a full year basis to New Age.

Brent Willis, Chief Executive Officer of New Age Beverages commented, “We have been extremely busy integrating BWR and New Age. We have already integrated our sales and marketing organizations, have brought all our shared services functions to bear to benefit BWR, and are now harmonizing our operational footprint and supply chain. The process has gone extremely smoothly, and we are excited about the potential that the BWR brands represent in a number of our markets and channels, beyond just traditional retail.”

The global company will remain headquartered in Denver, Colorado with major operations in Shanghai, Tokyo, Taipei, Stockholm, Munich, and Utah. BWR will be fully integrated into New Age, and a new North American operations location will be established in New York at BWR’s current offices.

Since announcement of the acquisition on June 2, 2019, New Age’s and BWR’s teams have been working on convergence including capturing more than $1.5 million in anticipated cost synergies that will accrue in the areas major distributor management, integrated warehousing and logistics, scale and efficiency benefits in transportation, and other areas. We also expect to achieve more than $10 million in revenue synergies within the first 18 months by cross selling each other’s brands into existing key account relationships including Kroger, Costco, Walmart, 7 Eleven, Circle K, and others; through expansion of BWR’s portfolio through New Age’s captive direct store distribution in Colorado and surrounding markets; and via expansion of the BWR brands into New Age’s e-Commerce system.