Pyramid Breweries Announces Sale of Thomas Kemper Soda.Deal with former Tazo Tea CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and Kettle Foods Kettle Foods is an international manufacturer of potato chips and other snack foods based in Salem, Oregon, United States. As of 2006 they were the largest natural potato chip brand in the U.S. Executive Allows for Focus on Craft Beer and Soda Brands SEATTLE -- Pyramid Breweries Inc. (Pyramid) (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :PMID PMID PubMed-Indexed for MEDLINE PMID Portable Multispectral Imaging Device PMID Process Management Improvement & Deployment PMID Physical Media Id PMID Performance Metric Identifier ) announced today the sale of the Thomas Kemper Thomas Kemper is a brewer of root beer, ginger ale, and other craft brewed sodas under the Thomas Kemper Soda Co. label. Formerly owned by Pyramid Breweries, Inc., it was sold in 2007 to Adventure Funds of Portland, Oregon, which is running the company under the Kemper Co. Soda brand to The Kemper Company, a new company formed by Adventure Funds, a Portland-based equity investment fund. Under terms of the deal, Pyramid received $3.1 million in cash for Thomas Kemper Soda assets including the brand and intellectual property, soda kegs, vehicles and point of sale materials. The transaction includes a 5-year supply agreement under which Pyramid will continue to manufacture Thomas Kemper Soda products for The Kemper Company at its breweries in Portland, Oregon and Berkeley, California Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington. . "This is a smart deal for both Pyramid Breweries and the new Kemper Company," said Scott Barnum, President and CEO, Pyramid Breweries Inc. "For Pyramid, we can now focus exclusively on brewing, marketing, distributing and further expanding the customer base for our popular and award-winning brews, including Pyramid Hefe Weizen and Snow Cap, while improving our cash position through the deal. And importantly for our employees, there will be no jobs lost and for our distributors, there will be no changes in production and supply of TK Sodas or our beers." "We obviously like Thomas Kemper products," said Bill Germano, the new company's President/CEO. "We also see opportunities for innovation and growth." Most recently, Germano was Vice President of Business Development for Kettle Foods. He was instrumental in their introduction of new products, including baked chips. "Thomas Kemper sodas are well known and very well-liked, especially in the Northwest," said Tal Johnson, Adventure Funds managing partner and the former CEO of Tazo Tea. "Kemper has a great reputation for quality. We want to work with Pyramid to protect that while bringing some new focus to the business and the brand." Through this deal, Pyramid is further increasing its strategic focus on its beer business and has made a number of investments in its brewing infrastructure over the past year. This includes investments in new kegs and fermentation tanks to handle additional growth, and improvements to its packaging processes to enhance production efficiencies. In 2006, Pyramid Breweries added to its already impressive medal count by winning two medals each in The Great American Beer Festival The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is a three-day annual event hosted by the Brewers Association held at the end of September or the beginning of October in Denver, Colorado. and the World Cup, while enjoying volume growth in its Pyramid brand shipments of roughly twice the rate of the overall craft segment. About Pyramid Breweries Inc. Pyramid Breweries Inc. is a leading brewer of specialty, full-flavored beers produced under the Pyramid and MacTarnahan's brand names. Pyramid's family of unfiltered Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. Remove this template after wikifying. This article has been tagged since wheat beers continue to be honored by beer drinkers and judges, earning the most craft beer medals in the last decade at the prestigious Great American Beer Festival (GABF GABF Great American Beer Festival GABF Greater Akron Baseball Federation ). Since its beginning, Pyramid beers have received a total of 33 medals at the GABF. The brewery has also received a total of 9 medals in international competition at the World Beer Cup. The Company owns two alehouse restaurants adjacent to its full-production breweries under the Pyramid Alehouse and MacTarnahan Taproom brand names in Berkeley, California, and Portland, Oregon, respectively, and three alehouse restaurants in Walnut Creek and Sacramento, California, and Seattle, Washington. More information about Pyramid Breweries is available at www.pyramidbrew.com. About Thomas Kemper Sodas/Adventure Funds Thomas Kemper Sodas are premium, handcrafted hand·craft n. Variant of handicraft. tr.v. hand·craft·ed, hand·craft·ing, hand·crafts To fashion or make by hand. hand·craft sodas brewed in Root Beer, Ginger Ale, Orange Cream, Vanilla Cream, Black Cherry black cherry, n See wild cherry. black cherry prunusserotina. , and Grape flavors. The Kemper Company is a portfolio company of Adventure Funds, a private equity fund based in Portland, Oregon. Adventure Funds invests in privately held, branded consumer products and other businesses in the Pacific Northwest and Western US. |
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