N.C. brewery is now publicly traded

A growing craft brewery in Boone is now a publicly traded company, and it hopes to use the new access to capital to spread its beer across the state.

Usually when you hear of a business going public, it's because the company issued shares for the first time in an initial public offering. But Appalachian Mountain Brewery took the lesser-known step of scooping up a tiny publicly traded firm and taking its place on the stock exchange.

The brewery said this month that it had acquired North Carolina Natural Energy Inc (ticker: NCNE), which trades over the counter, in a $3.5 million deal. That company is no longer in operation, and Appalachian Mountain Brewery has filed paperwork to formally change its name and ticker symbol to reflect its new owner.

Why go this somewhat unusual route? CEO Sean Spiegelman told the Observer that his brewery wanted to raise money to build a new distribution center and restaurant, get its beers into more stores and start brewing hard ciders and sour beers.

Traditionally, a small company in this position will take on an outside investor to get the capital. But Spiegelman said he didn't want to give up the equity in the business that would require. And since his father spent 30 years as an options trader on Wall Street, he said he knew this could be a good avenue to explore.

Appalachian Mountain Brewery's beers aren't in Charlotte yet, but they might be soon. Spigelman said he's already in talks with a distributor to get beers in the Charlotte and Raleigh metro areas. The CEO of Charlotte-based Chanticleer Holdings, Mike Pruitt, is also a shareholder, and said the beers could soon make it into restaurants his company controls -- like American Roadside Burgers.

***Sign up for our morning email newsletter -- the Bank Watch Morning Report. Find out more here.***