Award-winning Australian craft brewery goes into voluntary administration
Award-winning craft brewery Deeds Brewing has gone into voluntary administration, as a dire year for independent Australian beer makers continues.
The Victorian-based outfit called in administrators on Wednesday, according to ASIC records, for four companies that make up the business: Deeds Group Pty Ltd, Deeds Brewing Company Pty Ltd, Future Proof Distilling Pty Ltd and Deeds Taproom Pty Ltd.
It employs about 50 staff, whose futures now hinge on whether the brewery is able to be successfully restructured or sold to a new owner.
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Deeds Brewing has gone into voluntary administration. Deeds Brewing/Instagram
David Orr and Glen Kanevsky of Deloitte have been appointed joint administrators.
"It's very early days in this process as we take over management of the business and commence a review of its financial position," Kanevsky said in a statement provided to 9news.com.au.
"For now, it is a case of business as usual and continuing to trade while we explore urgent sale or recapitalisation options."
Established in 2012 as Quiet Deeds by university friends Patrick Alé and David Milstein, Deeds opened its brewery in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris in 2019 before adding a taproom and kitchen to the venue.
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Deeds opened its brewery in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris in 2019 before adding a taproom and kitchen to the venue. Deeds Brewing/Instagram
It won champion medium brewery and champion Victorian brewery at last year's Australian International Beer Awards.
It also took home medals for 12 of its various beers.
The brewery's collapse into administration comes as the entire craft beer industry faces significant financial headwinds from rising taxes, increasing material and transport costs, and competition from Australia's two major breweries and the two main liquor retailers.
This year alone has seen independent breweries Wayward, Big Shed, Hawkers and Golden West all go into administration, while the likes of Ballistic, Parched, Wicked Elf and Running With Thieves suffered the same fate in 2023.
9news.com.au has contacted Deeds' administrators for comment.
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