Hawkers And White Bay Merge To Form Social Drinks Group

January 23, 2025, by Crafty Pint

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Hawkers And White Bay Merge To Form Social Drinks Group

Two of Australia's best-known indie brewers have joined forces. Hawkers and White Bay have merged to form the Social Drinks Group, raising $1.5m in new capital and appointing a new CEO.

In a statement released today, they said the move would see them "combining their deep expertise and passion for innovation to deliver even more exceptional beverages." The new CEO is Judd Michel, who has worked in beer for many years, including stints running beer and beverage businesses at both CCA and Heineken. 

The founders of both breweries told The Crafty Pint they had each been looking for ways to secure their future for some time, given the significant and ongoing challenges facing the independent beer sector, and came to the conclusion they had businesses that could be stronger together.

"We have two complementary businesses," Hawkers co-founder and CEO Mazen Hajjar says. "One is very strong in Sydney and one is strong in Melbourne, and has a bit more national distribution. We can rationalise distribution channels, e-commerce, and will be able to produce more at scale, reduce costs, and increase market penetration."

Mazen cites multiple factors that have "changed the goalposts" for businesses like his over the past decade: a rise in parochialism post-COVID; national retailers Endeavour Group (Dan Murphy's and BWS) and Coles cutting off national distribution for many independent brewers; COVID, bushfires and floods; inflation; rising costs related to the war in Ukraine; and a lack of support for the industry from the government among them.

 

Mazen Hajjar, with trophy in hand, and the Hawkers on claiming Champion Large Australian Brewery at the 2022 Australian International Beer Awards.

 

"The government hasn't been doing anything," he adds. "The two big multinationals are getting more aggressive with their tap contracts. The national chains are getting more aggressive with cutting off distribution channels.

"If you can't sell on tap and you can't sell in bottleshops, where the hell do you sell?

"Luckily bottleshops are a bit more dispersed than tap points, but the problem we have is that we've got to figure out a way to do this."

The move will see Mazen and White Bay's founders step away from the day-to-day running of the breweries. They'll sit on the board of directors of the new company, but new CEO Judd will be the one driving Social Drinks Group into the future.

Judd told The Crafty Pint he'd spent the last five years at Heineken and that the appeal of joining the new operation was due to their plans for the future. 

"This is just the first step in the journey," he says. "This is the beginning, we'll be looking for further acquisitions, mergers and transactions."

Mazen adds: "It won't just be White Bay and Hawkers; we're already talking to other potential partners." And, while all parties acknowledge such partners could come from other drinks sectors, he says they'll be "restricted to independent and artisanal craft" producers who share the same ethos.

"I think a lot of people are looking at what we are doing: consolidation and mergers are a thing. It's a very difficult market to try to raise money in."

The move comes just weeks before Hawkers mark ten years since the brewery was launched by Mazen Hajjar and Joseph Abboud, the chef behind Melbourne’s lauded Lebanese restaurant, Rumi. The latter left the business in its early years, with Mazen going on to build one of Victoria’s largest independent breweries, regularly winning medals and major trophies at the country’s largest beer awards, and producing beer and other beverages for scores of other businesses.

In February last year, the brewing company entered voluntary administration, emerging under the same owners a month later. Mazen, who is our guest on The Crafty Pint Podcast in two weeks, has long been a vocal critic of elements of the Australian beer market, including tap contracts, the excise tax and container deposit regimes, and a lack of government support for small scale brewers. 

White Bay launched in 2020, with the brewery’s founders including Adam Trippe-Smith, who also runs Konvoy and, prior to that, was a key figure at both Kegstar and Vale Brewing when it was known as McLaren Vale Brewing Co, and publican Tim Condon. The Balmain brewery was one of the first to push hard into craft lagers; in 2021, their Lager was named Champion Australian Indie Beer at The Indies. 

In late 2023, White Bay first addressed challenges they were facing as a business by welcoming brand and creative agency Richards Rose on board as equity partners, which was followed by a rebrand and being named the official beer partner of the Sydney Swans.

 

Adam (pictured above fourth from right) told The Crafty Pint they'd realised they needed to make changes otherwise they risked becoming a "casualty", with the Swans partnership a way of going "deeper and wider in Sydney."

"Ten years ago it was different. You opened the doors and people flooded in," he says, adding that in weighing up their options, "we didn't think about selling because that way doesn't exist anymore.

"I always believed something like this could help. Importantly, it's 100 percent independent."

He says Mazen had been reassessing his business model, and admits the founders of White Bay are tired.

"Tim runs pubs and I run Konvoy. It's been a hard few years. Mazen wanted to take a back seat a bit, and we wanted to a bit. We also felt White Bay needed someone running it full-time but we were too small to afford a full-time CEO.

"Lots of people have approached Mazen, and we've had a lot of chats. We found we were like-minded [and] importantly, we don't compete. We're both small breweries with strong core ranges and pretty active limited release programs; the ethos is there."

Adam says that when Judd left Heineken, he felt the stars had aligned: "We realised this could actually happen."

In putting together the plan for the merger, the collaborators were able to raise capital they'd been unable access alone.

"We didn't want one plus one to equal zero," he says of the $1.5m injected into the new business. "It had to be one plus one equals at least two, but now Judd is the leader it makes three."

This merger isn’t the first in the local beer world, with Wayward and Batch Brewing joining forces in 2022 to launch the Local Drinks Collective. In WA, Otherside and Nowhereman became one with the latter’s venue now operating as the Otherside of Nowhere, while in Tasmania, T-Bone and Last Rites now share parts of their brewing operation too.

The move by Hawkers and White Bay means the Social Drinks Group will operate both Hawkers’ seven-million-litre facility in Melbourne and White Bay’s two-million-litre facility in Sydney. For now, Adam says opening new venues – something a number of their peers have focused on in recent years – is only a possibility, although he envisages pouring some Hawkers beers at the White Bay taproom.

"First and foremost, the focus is on ramping up sales of both brands," he says. "More tap points. Better presence in retail. Strong partnerships with customers."

He adds they're open to the right opportunities to bring more businesses into the Social Drinks Group, whether they're in beer or other beverage industries, and whether that takes the shape of future mergers or outright acquisitions, acknowledging tough conditions mean there are plenty of other business owners looking for capital or exits.

"A multi-beverage strategy is important," he says.

Reflecting on the merger and stepping back from the business he has built over the past decade while looking ahead to Hawkers' tenth anniversary, Mazen says: "I feel great. It's not exactly what we signed up for when we first came in; we came in and wanted to build a company that would go national and build the brand, but it's evolved over time as the goalposts have changed."


MEDIA RELEASE: HAWKERS & WHITE BAY MERGE TO FORM SOCIAL DRINKS GROUP
SOCIAL DRINKS GROUP RAISES $1.5M OF NEW CAPITAL TO FUEL GROWTH 
JUDD MICHEL APPOINTED CEO

Hawkers Beer and White Bay Brewery have agreed to join forces under the newly established Social Drinks Group. This new chapter brings together two of Australia’s most celebrated breweries, combining their deep expertise and passion for innovation to deliver even more exceptional beverages.

Social Drinks Group will begin trading on 1 February 2025.

The mission of Social Drinks Group is simple: to create exceptional beverages that bring people together to enjoy the good times. Together, Hawkers and White Bay will now operate under one umbrella, offering award-winning brews from hubs in Melbourne and Sydney.

Social Drinks Group now has two state-of-the-art breweries: Hawkers’ 7-million litre facility in Reservoir, Melbourne and White Bay’s 2 million litre facility in White Bay, Sydney.

Judd Michel has joined as CEO, a veteran beverage industry executive who has previously run successful dynamic beer and beverage businesses at CCA and Heineken.

The merger will provide Social Drinks Group with a broad reach across the country, offering dedicated sales, marketing, supply chain and finance teams in place to deliver outstanding service and a world-class brand portfolio.

Social Drinks Group will target further growth via additional mergers, acquisitions and brand distribution partnerships.

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