Tuesday, June 15, 1999
Oldenberg loses fizz, files for reorganization
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MITCHELL — Faced with flat sales and high debt, the Oldenberg Brewing Co. is reorganizing its microbrewery and restaurant business under federal bankruptcy laws.
Oldenberg has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows the company to continue to make beer and run restaurants while restructuring its debt, company President David Heidrich said Monday evening.
“There's been a significant slowdown in business, and we have a lot of (financial) obligations and that need to be readjusted,” said Mr. Heidrich, who purchased the brewery from founder Jerry Deters in 1995 and took the company public in 1996.
“I'm optimistic this can all be worked out ... but I imagine parts of the company will be broken up,”he said.
In the bankruptcy filing Oldenberg listed assets of $5.2 million and liabilities of $3.3 million.
In addition to the Fort Mitchell brewery on Buttermilk Pike, Oldenberg operates restaurants in Louisville and near Orlando, Fla., and has plans to open a third restaurant in Augusta, Ga.
Oldenberg employs 210 people, but fewer than 10 work in Northern Kentucky. No layoffs are expected, and consumers still will be able to buy Oldenberg beers at stores, restaurants and bars in the area, Mr. Heidrich said.
Small breweries such as Oldenberg grew rapidly in the early 1990s,when craft beers caught consumers' fancy. But Mr. Heidrich said there has been a slowdown in sales, which he described as “flat” at Oldenberg.
Oldenberg also went into debt to expand into the restaurant business.
“Oldenberg will come out of this,” Mr. Heidrich said. “But I can't really say at this point what it will look like.”
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