By Andy Young
In a rousing blog post Stone and Wood co-founders Brad Rogers, Jamie Cook and Ross Jurisich have dismissed rumours surrounding the future of the brewery.
Several craft breweries both locally and internationally have recently been bought out by larger companies and speculation has continued to grow as to whether the trend will continue and, if so, which small breweries are next on the shopping list.
But co-founders Rogers, Cook and Jurisich have sought to dismiss any speculation that they will sell Stone & Wood, insisting they are still "highly engaged in and excited by" their brewing business.
In a post on the Stone & Wood website Rogers, Cook and Jurisich said: "The exits from the industry that we are seeing overseas and here in Australia appears to be mostly driven by long time brewery founders deciding that they have done their time, or they have seen their businesses outgrow their ability to manage them.
"For others their business has not been able to reach the scale where it can provide an annual return to its owners, so the best way to get a return on their sweat and investment is to sell. Of course there are some operators who have obviously got into it to make a quick buck, and jumped ship at the first sign of a pay cheque.
"We are both amused, annoyed and angered that we continually hear our name being thrown around as 'the next one to go', or that 'those guys are just in it for the money'."
The co-founders added: "If people are looking for who might be next, or who’s in it just for the money, then maybe they should be looking at those breweries who step back away from the hard calls, and don’t fully commit to the industry that they are part of, or the communities they operate in.
"We work hard everyday to build people’s trust and faith in our business. We know it can’t just be expected, and that it has to be earned.
"We are more than happy with the personal return we get from the business, and are comfortable that it’s feeding our families and our souls.
"We’re having more fun now than we ever have, there’s lots to do, and we’re more about buying, building and bolting things on than selling them."
Stone & Wood have recently created a new sales and distribution hub and also announced 'tweaks' to its popular lager and the launch of a Forefathers beer.
The full blog post is available on the Stone & Wood website.