Little World Beverages Limited, owners of craft brewer Little Creatures, has entered into a conditional agreement to purchase a property in the city of Geelong on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula with plans to eventually build an East Coast brewery.

The Valley Mills site

The property, known as the Valley Mills, has been purchased for $6.38 million with the purchase conditional upon the satisfactory outcome of a due diligence process which will examine the ability to work with the existing heritage building structures to incorporate brewing production requirements, and a visitors centre.

The company says that it will also need to have ensure it can gain all regulatory approvals including local authority and liquor licensing approvals.

“The Valley Mills property has wonderful industrial heritage which we would love to reincarnate with what we do and the way we do it,” said LWB Director Howard Cearns.

The buildings are not dissimilar to the breweries of yesteryear

“The buildings and spaces within are not dissimilar to the small community breweries of yesteryear, making it a good fit for the ‘traditional village’ approach we value”.

The move comes after another successful year for the pioneering Western Australian craft brewery. The company, which owns Little Creatures Brewery in Freemantle, White Rabbit in Healesville and a 20 per cent share in Byron Bay’s Stone & Wood, declared a profit of $6.8 million for the 2009/10 financial year, an increase of over 50 per cent on the previous year.

The purchased site certainly looks impressive, and the heritage site would seem an ideal location to replicate the craft brewery’s famous but largely intangible atmosphere.

No details of the timeline for building a brewery have beenannounced.

www.littleworldbeverages.com

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