When Brendan Watters assembled a group of investors to purchase Ballast Point Brewing back in 2019, he was familiar with the brand, high on the opportunities he saw in it, and determined to revert the business back into the source of civic pride it had provided San Diegans for decades prior to being sold to mega-beverage conglomerate Constellation Brands. He happily signed on the dotted line and enthusiastically set out to achieve goals outlined in a multifaceted, ambitious business plan. Then came COVID, upending all of it in the blink of an eye.
Since then, Watters and company have largely been playing defense, changing formations to best weather the pandemic and the host of challenges that have arisen in its wake. That’s not to say they didn’t mix in some offensive maneuvers. In 2022, Ballast Point took over the Miramar HQ and Leucadia taproom previously operated by Saint Archer Brewery, before determining they weren’t right in light of the shifting beverage market and extracting themselves from both properties. And in 2023, Watters relinquished control of Ballast Point’s Miramar brewery – one of the highest-capacity beermaking operations in San Diego County – to booming non-alcoholic concern Athletic Brewing.
Ballast Point still manages the bar and restaurant within the Miramar facility. It and the company’s R&D brewery and kitchen-equipped taproom in Little Italy are the company’s only remaining ties to the city where it was founded 29 years ago. Watters wants to desperately to change that. In fact, he has for a long time, and has spent the better part of two years working to get deals done to accomplish that.
Today, the company officially announced it has established partnerships with a pair of new investors sharing Watters’ ambition to strengthen Ballast Point’s presence in San Diego while also expanding its presence outside the county. Those partners are RMD Group, the hospitality company behind local restaurants and nightlife spots, including Rustic Root, Huntress and Sidebar, and Cypress Ascendant, a group with active investments in the PGA Tour, Wonderfront Festival, Rhone Clothing and multiple college-sports events. Both of Ballast Point’s new partners (which are replacing Watters’ original investors) are San Diego-based, and bring personnel and skillsets to the table which should prove useful as the company transitions into its next chapter.
“It’s a completely different animal this time,” says Watters. “Our new partners know how to do retail and merchandising very well, and have actually been behind-the-scenes collaborators of ours for years. They’ll be bringing in tremendous management expertise and take a lot off my table.”
“This strategic move marks a significant, collective milestone for Ballast Point, RMD Group and Cypress Ascendant, and opens up new opportunities for growth and innovation for all parties,” says RMD Group Partner Mike Georgopoulos. “We’re excited to play a larger role in the evolution of Ballast Point’s history and to carry on Ballast Point’s great legacy into the future with great experiences and outstanding beer.”
When striking the 2019 deal to acquire Ballast Point, Watters and his investors were based in Chicago. He later moved to San Diego, shutting down the Illinois-based business entity under which his investor group was umbrellaed, Kings & Convicts Brewing, and has now called the city home for half a decade. He says he appreciates that his new partners know San Diego, are familiar not only with Ballast Point but also its history, and want to restore the brand starting in the city where it was born. A big part of the plan for doing so is establishing multiple Ballast Point venues throughout the county.
“We’ve started looking. RMD is leading that charge, talking with brokers to find sites that will work for the type of taprooms we’re looking to open,” says Watters. As of now, no particular communities have been short-listed and there is no hard deadline for locating ideal sites. “We don’t want to rush. If a place isn’t right, we’re not just going to do a kneejerk and try to shoehorn our way into it.”
Watters says RMD is assessing operations at Ballast Point’s existing public spots so that it can eventually making changes to increase efficiencies and put procedures in place which can be carried over to future locations. In addition to searching for local sites to house such venues, Ballast Point is also searching beyond the county. But Watters says San Diego is far and away their main focus. He also reports that the company is adding to its California sales force to increase sales of it distributed beers, and that Cypress Ascendant will play a key role in those efforts.
“I loved my original partners dearly, but none of us knew COVID was going to hit. It came and we suddenly had to do what we had to do to survive. We did, but we had to change our entire gameplan to do it,” says Watters. “Now, we have new people who love this company. They understand Ballast Point and San Diego, and together we can focus on running and growing the business. It’s a new and exciting energy. The sky’s the limit on what we hope to achieve together as we take Ballast Point to the next level.”