Wildpack buys Longmont’s Vertical Distilling for $4.5M

LONGMONT — Vertical Distilling LLC, a Longmont-based ready-to-drink beverage contract manufacturer operated by CanSource LLC founders Pat Hartman and Ron Popma, has been bought by Canadian co-packer Wildpack Beverage Inc. (TSX-V: CANS) for $4.5 million in cash.

 “Colorado is a key geography in the middle market beverage industry for both customers and vendors,” Wildpack chief growth officer Thomas Walker said in a prepared statement. “Establishing a presence there not only furthers our strategic business objectives as it relates to decreasing shipping cost and complexity for customers, but it also places us as neighbors to several of our key vendors. Strengthening these relationships is expected to have a positive impact on our business as we continue to accumulate market share in spaces that we operate.”

According to Wildpack, Vertical Distilling is operating on a cash flow positive basis with only one daily manufacturing shift. As part of Wildpack, the company plans to optimize shift work to increase production and broaden Vertical’s service offerings by next spring. 

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“The Colorado facility is expected to become a central hub for Wildpack and its customers as Wildpack continues to execute on the strategic business plan of building a network of facilities within one-day shipping range of all major distribution centers in the middle market beverage industry,” the company said in a news release. 

Hartman and Pompa shifted their focus to ready-to-drink beverage ventures in late 2019 after CanSource was bought by private equity firm Broadtree Partners. 

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