The new year has started much as 2023 ended with another brewery entering voluntary administration. Wayward Brewing and the Local Drinks Collective formed with Batch Brewing Co in October 2022 have appointed administrators with the intention of restructuring the business and retaining ownership.
Wayward was launched by Peter Philip in 2012, going on to build a brewery and accompanying venue in 2015. They have won a number of awards for their beers over the years before forming the Local Drinks Collective (LDC) with their fellow inner-west brewers. Batch Brewing Co are not involved in the administration process.
Peter told The Crafty Pint the decision had been taken to return Wayward and the LDC to a cash flow positive state, and that it represented the last stage of restructuring the business. The intention is to put a DOCA proposal to creditors in the coming weeks that would see the founders retain ownership.
"It's not ideal but it is what it is," he said. "We've got to get the business back on the right sort of footing moving forward."
The appointment of administrators comes after the retrenchment of between 25 and 30 percent of the brewing company's workforce last month, with the aim, Peter says, being to "move forward confidently and with a clean balance sheet. To try to get the shit couple of years behind us."
They're working with DBA Reconstruction & Advisory, who have worked with both Dainton Beer and Bad Shepherd when those Victorian breweries went through voluntary administration in recent months.
He said the "perfect storm" of inflationary pressures on the one hand that we explored in The Exploding Cost Of Brewing Beer, combined with a cutback in consumer spending and confidence had led the business to this point.
"Everybody I speak to, whether it's venues or another brewery or in hospo, is really suffering at the moment," he said. "What I'm hearing out there is that people are still going out, but they're buying schooners instead of pints, or having one pint instead of two or three; everyone is tightening their belts."
Peter remains hopeful for the future, provided the country doesn't enter a recession in 2024, stating in a media release (which you can read in full below) that he was "confident the financial restructuring will result in a stronger and more resilient business emerging from administration."
"I've got no doubt that beer will bounce back, but it will take a couple of interest rate cuts and a rise in consumer confidence," he added.
"We don't think there's anything fundamentally broken with the model, and I'm still glad we did the Local Drinks Collective – Batch is still very much part of the business.
"We just have to continue to trade as usual for our staff, just continue to tighten our belts, which should see us through to the other side."
Media Release: Wayward Brewing Co. and Local Drinks Collective enter voluntary administration to facilitate financial restructuring
Wayward Brewing Company Pty Ltd (Wayward) and Local Drinks Collective Pty Ltd (LDC), have announced their decision to appoint an administrator to help facilitate a financial restructuring of the business. Wayward operates a craft brewery and taproom in Camperdown, in the inner west of Sydney. LDC is the distribution business formed in 2022 by Wayward Brewing Co and Batch Brewing Co (Batch). Batch is not involved the voluntary administration process and continues to operate as normal.
DBA Reconstruction & Advisory as Administrator is supporting the continued operation of the combined business of Wayward and LDC, so employees and customers should consider it business as usual. There will be no impact to ongoing production, distribution and taproom operations as a result of this appointment.
Peter Philip, as sole director of Wayward and LDC, has taken this step to deal with financial losses the business has accrued in the face of declining consumer demand across the craft beer market combined with significant increases in production costs. Peter and his team are working with the Administrator on a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) proposal, which will provide a framework for the restructuring of the combined business.
They are confident the financial restructuring will result in a stronger and more resilient business emerging from administration.
Peter said: “The last few years have been an extremely challenging time across our industry and for the wider economy. However, we are confident that the restructuring will ensure the business is on firm footing and we can look ahead with confidence.”
Wayward remains committed to maintaining a high standard of service and open communication with all stakeholders during this restructuring process.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
