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December 9, 2024
EAGLE RIVER – As many business owners may agree, realizing it’s time to step away and sell can be a difficult one.
“Owning a business (and) the decision to sell it, is such a mind-bending emotional roller coaster,” John Foster – a broker with Creative Business Services – said. “It’s like selling one of their children, and it’s a very emotional juggernaut to get your arms around. But, you know, there is a time for everything in life.”
That time for Bill Summers and Marc O’Brien – the former co-owners of Tribute Brewing Company in Eagle River – came a little over a year ago when Foster said they approached him about selling their business.
“It was important to us to find people that were going to come in with some new energy, some new ideas,” Summers said. “We’ve left the business with a lot of blue sky.”
Summers and Foster said they found the buyers they were looking for in Justin Thomas and Matt Render – the new owners of Tribute – finalizing the sale in mid-October.
“They had not only the ability to get the deal done from a financial perspective,” Foster said, “but they believed in Bill and Marc’s vision of what they had already created.”
The decision to sell
Summers said he began thinking about moving on from Tribute after his wife – who he said was “instrumental” in starting the business – unexpectedly passed away in 2019.
“At that time, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I think I want to move on from here,’ and then COVID-19 hit,” he said.
Deciding they couldn’t sell the business in the middle of the pandemic, Summers said he and O’Brien stayed with Tribute for the time being – adding that he felt Tribute was “very successful during COVID” as it hit during their slower time of the year.
“When we reopened it was a matter of getting our feet back on the ground and getting things going,” he said.
After O’Brien expressed that he was ready to move on as well, that’s when Summers said the two men brought in Foster to help find a qualified buyer for Tribute.
“(We had) gotten his name through a couple of businesses up here that he had brokered in the area,” he said. “His firm typically does not do small businesses, but because John has a place in the Northwoods – and he had helped a couple of other small businesses up here move on from their business, and we knew some of those people – he was willing to take us on as a client.”
‘The perfect buyers’
Summers said he and O’Brien started Tribute Brewing in 2012 “on a shoestring” budget – growing it over the next decade into a mainstay establishment in the Northwoods.
Now, more than a decade later, Summers said it was a top priority for him, O’Brien and Foster to find someone who would continue Tribute’s legacy.
“We came up with some pricing for the company and took it to market,” Foster said. “We had quite a few people that were interested in this very successful brewery in Eagle River.”
Ten days after taking the business to market, Summers said he was approached by Thomas and Render via text – expressing their interest in buying Tribute.
“I sent him on to John and then John worked with him and provided whatever documents they were looking for, which we had provided to John, and off we went to negotiations,” he said.
Summers said though he didn’t recognize the two men right away, he later remembered they were patrons of Tribute.
“They’ve been in Tribute a number of times,” he said. “I didn’t recognize them necessarily, because, you know, they weren’t up here but maybe once or twice a year, and probably usually when we were very busy – but they were familiar with our business (and) they liked it.”
Foster said Render – who owns a place in Eagle River – “has always been a very enthusiastic customer of the business and had a long time wish to own and operate a brewery, and so did Justin Thomas.”
Their financial ability to purchase Tribute, their familiarity with the business in combination with their desire to continue its legacy, Foster said, is what made Thomas and Render “the perfect buyers.”
“Matt and Justin will certainly provide the legacy that these guys deserve and want to have with the sale of their business,” he said. “But they (also) have the wherewithal to take the business, still, to another level – it was a great synergistic fit.”
Ensuring a smooth transition
Foster said through negotiations with Thomas and Render, Summers and O’Brien agreed to stay with the company for the time being to ensure a smooth transition between owners.
“Marc agreed to stay on with the company… and continue to produce the excellent and award-winning beers that this company has been known for,” Foster said. “Even though Bill wanted to retire, he still agreed to work a couple of nights (in) the taproom to see and sell beer to his many, many customers and friends.”
As the master brewer of Tribute, Foster said it was important to Thomas and Render that O’Brien stayed with the company after the sale to ensure Tribute’s regular customers and Northwoods vacationers are served the same award-winning beer the company has sold for the last 12 years.
“(Marc) won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Fest in Denver in 2018 for his white legs jalapeno wheat beer in the chili beer category,” Summers said. “That was, you know, about as high an honor as you can get in the brewing industry.”
With plenty of “blue sky” left ahead in Tribute’s future, Summers said he’s excited to see where Thomas and Render go in how they choose to grow the brewing company.
For more information, visit tributebrewing.com
