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Pat Cummins has revealed a keen thirst for investments in the beverage sector after the Australian cricket captain backed up last year’s dive into sugar-free soft drink company Nexba with a debut investment in Katoomba-based craft brewer Mountain Culture Beer Co.
While the scale of Cummins’ investment has not been disclosed, Mountain Culture has revealed that the cricketer is the first equity investor in the company which was founded in 2019 by DJ and Harriet McCready.
Despite media reports this time last year that Mountain Culture Beer was considering an equity raising, the company has confirmed that Cummins is its only investor and that it has no plans to open up to further investment at this stage.
Mountain Culture Beer Co is described as Australia's fourth-largest independent brewery thanks to popular brews Status Quo Pale Ale and Cult IPA.
The company says Cummins was born and bred in the Blue Mountains just a stone’s throw from the company’s Emu Plains brewery, and that his investment in Mountain Culture Beer stems from his “love of the brand and product”.
“Our packaging manager happened to live next door to the Cummins’ family and dropped some merch over the back fence and we were stoked when we saw him wearing it,” says DJ McCready, who landed in Australia in 2014 from his native US and was the founding head brewer of Modus Operandi in the Northern Beaches before establishing Mountain Culture with his wife Harriet.
“But then we saw him drinking the beer, which he’d bought of his own volition, and that’s when we thought, hey maybe Pat wants to join us on our mission to bring really good beer to Australia?
“We always knew that if we ever brought on investors, it would be because we found someone who strongly aligned with our values.”
McCready says Cummins shares the Mountain Culture Beer Co ethos of “wanting to be the best in your field”.
“He leads the best cricket team in the world and we’re trying to run the best brewery in the world,” he says.
“We also found someone who believes in authenticity like we do. He really wants to put in the hard work; he wants to get his hands dirty and is really involved in the business, he doesn’t just want to be a pretty face - even though he is one.”
Mountain Culture Beer operates from three locations – the Katoomba Brewpub, Emu Plains Taproom and the new Redfern Bar – which are complemented by a retail distribution network of more than 1,000 outlets including deals with independent liquor outlets and majors such as Dan Murphy’s, BWS and Liquorland.
Earlier this year, the company announced it had expanded its partnership with AHL Hotels through the opening of a new bar inside the New Brighton Hotel where it has eight taps pouring Mountain Culture beer.
The company appears to be defying the broader downturn in the craft beer sector, which has claimed several major brands, with Mountain Culture reporting 33 per cent year-on-year sales growth.
Mountain Culture says it is bucking the trend as 45 per cent of its drinkers are aged between 18 and 34, adding that it is producing in the top 2 per cent of craft by volume at more than three million litres a year.
Mountain Culture recently launched its first brand marketing campaign spruiking Status Quo Pale Ale, which was voted the number one beer in Australia in 2022 and 2023.
The Australian Financial Review last year reported that Mountain Culture Beer Co had appointed Morgan Shaw Advisory to drive the company’s first external investment round that could have valued the company at $70 million.
While a formal capital raising never eventuated, Mountain Culture reveals to Business News Australia that this information may have come from a leaked draft information memorandum from an external consultant.
“The investment with Pat (Cummins) came about in a more organic, Mountain Culture way, grounded in Pat's love of the brand and product,” says a spokesperson for the company. “Pat is the first and only investor and Mountain Culture don't have any plans for further investment at this stage.”
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