Scarborough firm gets Allagash expansion contract

Scarborough-based Landry/French Construction has won its second contract with Allagash Brewing this year to complete an expansion of multiple parts of the Portland brewing operation.

The company announced this week that it will take on a $1.4-million, 9,100-square-foot expansion of the Allagash brew house, retail store and the exterior fermentation tank structure, which the construction company modified earlier this year to add six fermentation tanks.

Rob Tod, Allagash founder, told Mainebiz that the expansion is the largest in the brewery's history and will expand production capacity around 45% to cater to existing markets where he says the company is hoping to keep up.

"We're not out developing new markets now," Tod says. "We're focused on developing our current markets and we need this [expansion] now to keep up with demand."

In recent years, Tod said Allagash has gone from 44 wholesalers to 22, where he says the brewery's markets — including New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles — have stabilized. Around 90% of the Portland-brewed beer makes its way out of state, Tod says.

Though the expansion is the largest the brewery has pursued, Tod says that he is focused on incremental growth.

"Rather than putting in three years of capacity, this will carry us through the next year," Tod says. "Then we'll revisit how we met need for the previous year based on demand for the beer."

The expansion project will also include the construction of a new 64-space parking lot as well as storm water system and landscaping work.

The project is set to break ground on Oct. 12 and be completed by April 2013, according to a press release from Landry/French.

By next summer, Tod says the brewery that seeks around 20,000 tour visitors annually will not only have more brewing capacity, but a new retail store with new attractions.