Anchor Brewing employees look to save century-old brewery but the clock is ticking

Several workers at San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company say they believe they can raise enough money to run the brewery as a worker co-op.

But the clock is ticking.

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The 127-year-old San Francisco craft brewery is scheduled to shut down and liquidate at the end of the month. Earlier in July, the company announced the shutdown, citing economic conditions.

On Saturday, long lines of people showed up at Anchor Brewing Public Taps in San Francisco to get their fill for what might be the last time. The brewery is scheduled to have its taps open to the public through the end of July, so many Anchor fans showed up this weekend to buy merchandise and enjoy the beer.

"We’re here to pay tribute to a great brewery and hope it can be saved,” said Donna Cummings of San Francisco, who proudly showed up in an Anchor Brewing sweatshirt.

"Hopefully somebody local or the employees or crowdfunding can find some way to save it," Cummings continued, "it's an institution here in the city."

Several ideas have been floated to continue the brewery in some form, including interested investors and an effort by workers to purchase the brewery. Wednesday, workers of Anchor Brewing sent a letter through a representative from their union, Warehouse Union Local 6 - ILWU, telling Anchor Brewing's parent company, Sapporo, that "workers of Anchor Brewing have met, discussed, and decided to launch an effort to purchase the brewery and run it as a worker co-op."

Saturday, Anchor Brewing Company confirmed in a statement from spokesperson Sam Singer, that they received this letter.

"Given our deep respect for the Anchor Union and our team members, should our employees put forward a bona-fide, legally binding offer to buy the Company, one that includes a verifiable source of funds, we would gladly consider it," Singer said in a statement Saturday.

"But, time is running short," the statement continued. "We continue to move forward toward an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors at the beginning of August, while simultaneously receiving and collecting all interest in acquiring the business."

Several Anchor Brewing employees who are also members of the union spoke with NBC Bay Area on Saturday. They explained that when news came out about plans to shut down the brewery, employees came up with the idea for a worker co-op, and representatives from their union helped them start the process of figuring out how to make that happen.

"A lot of us were born and raised in San Francisco, we care about what this company was and what it could be," said Patrick Machel, a production worker for Anchor Brewing who is part of the group pushing for a worker co-op.

They explained that employees are driving this push to purchase Anchor Brewing as a worker co-op and that ILWU has been supporting them in that effort. So far, they say around 40 Anchor Brewing employees are involved in this effort.

"It’s the beer of San Francisco, it’s the beer of everyone who’s grown up here, so it's about time it’s made by workers, owned by workers, and run by workers," said Kieran Engemann, an Anchor Brewing production worker who is also part of this group of employees hoping to purchase the brewery. Engemann noted that for workers, the co-op would also help to ensure future work for the employees beyond the end of July.

"Those funds – absolutely we believe we can raise them, we believe we can put that together," said Evan McLaughlin a union organizer with Local 6 ILWU.  

He explained that Anchor Brewing workers have been inundated with offers to support the effort to make the worker co-op a reality.

"We’re just not going to have money as fast as larger investors or some private equity firm," McLaughlin added.

"Our ask to Anchor [Brewing] is: 'Give us enough time,' our ask to Saporro is: 'Give us enough time to have a fair shot,'" McLaughlin said.

How much time is enough time? McLaughlin said that the involved employees would be open to discussing that with Anchor Brewing.  He added that the employees are working with an organization called Project Equity which has experience with other worker co-ops.

“I’m all for the workers buying it as a co-op,” said Norm Whitman of San Francisco, who was at Anchor Brewing on Saturday celebrating his birthday.

"I would support the workers owning it and turning a good profit and not having to be beholden to exponential growth and not having some angel investor come in and gut it," Whitman continued.

Many patrons at the brewery Saturday had heard about this attempt by employees to purchase the brewery.

"I’m hopeful, I read also about the initiative about the co-op for employees, I think that would be an elegant solution and a win-win all the way around," said patron Donna Cummings on Saturday, adding an alternate option:
"or you know, some local benefactor in the city to step up and kind of save it for the community."

For the time being, Anchor Brewing employees said that their work is scheduled to end in a little more than a week.