D.L. Geary Brewing being sold to Freeport businessman
D.L. Geary Brewing Co., a pioneer in the microbrewery industry when it was incorporated in 1983 by David and Karen Geary, is being sold to a Freeport businessman.
The Portland Press Herald reported that Kelly Lucas, whose parents, David and Karen Geary, co-founded the brewery in 1983, identified the buyer as Alan Lapoint of Freeport.
Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close by year’s end.
Lucas, who had served as the company’s director of operations, told the newspaper that a management contract completed on Wednesday gives Lapoint immediate control of the company based on Evergreen Drive.
According to the company’s website, when the Portland-based microbrewery was incorporated in 1983 it was only one of 14 microbreweries nationwide, with most being in California and the Pacific Northwest. After a period of intensive research at breweries in England and Scotland, the Gearys opened their brewery in the fall of 1986, becoming New England’s first microbrewery.
Since then, Geary’s has increased its product line to seven year-round products and three seasonal specialties, all in various package sizes, and has spread distribution to 15 states along the eastern seaboard and as far west as Ohio.
Last fall, numbers provided by the state's Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations showed that competition from the state’s 75 other breweries had made a significant impact on Geary's sales. The bureau reported the Portland brewery made 34.5% less beer in 2015 than in 2011, compared with Maine's craft breweries, which produced 113.8% more beer in 2015 than in 2011.
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