This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
The parent company of Rogue Ales & Spirits filed for bankruptcy Monday, 10 days after it abruptly closed its Newport brewery and restaurant operations and three other restaurants around Oregon.
Oregon Brewing Company filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court, outlining in a 137-page document that it has $4.9 million in assets and $16.7 million in liabilities.
The bankruptcy involves liquidating assets and is not a restructuring to continue the business.
Rogue Ales’ was Oregon’s third-largest craft brewery and is listed in the country’s top 50 craft breweries. Headquartered in Newport, the company shipped beer and other products internationally.
The bankruptcy by Oregon Brewing, Rogue’s parent company, also included two subsidiaries, Rogue River Brewing Co. and Yaquina Bay Beverage Co.
Among Rogue’s assets include 1,300 barrels of aging whiskey worth $2.8 million, the filing said, $1 million worth of hops, grain and other brewing ingredients, more than $614,000 in packaging and labels and more than $692,000 in labeled and bottled beverages.
The filing said the company had gross revenue through October of $14.9 million. Last year, Rogue’s total revenue was $19.7 million, down from $23.5 million in 2023.
The filing includes a 29-page list of creditors, ranging from as little as $20 to a local supplier to more than $1.3 million to two Washington state farms to $620,000 in unsecured loans from Rogue co-founder Jeff Schultz of Portland.
The bankruptcy filing also said it stood to lose $10 million in a potential negligence claim by the estate of a 74-year-old Lincoln City woman killed in a 2022 drunken driving wreck near Gleneden Beach. The other driver was later convicted of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to six years in prison.
Included in the liabilities is back rent to the Port of Newport of $594,000 and four years of unpaid property taxes owed to Lincoln County totaling $918,000.
Other notable information from the massive filing included that Rogue:
- Had $1.15 million in past due accounts;
- Had invested $2.5 million in beer canning equipment since 2016;
- Had entered into an accounts receivable financing arrangement with an Alaska bank in late 2024; and
- Had lost its chief financial officer in March, after which it outsourced the work.
Impact in Newport
Some 47 people in Newport lost their jobs Nov. 14 when Rogue closed its brewing and restaurant operations. The closure is estimated to have a $3 million yearly economic impact on Newport, according to Paul Schuytema, executive director of the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County.
In a statement Tuesday, the Port of Newport said in a statement that it was saddened by the loss of Rogue’s iconic brand, and the jobs in the community.
“Rogue helped fulfill the Port’s role in the community as a hub for economic development,” said deputy director Aaron Bretz.
Bretz said during and after the bankruptcy process that the Port would seek to use the property to support jobs and economic development.
“We expect to be made whole through this process but after everything is settled … we will work expeditiously to replace the tenancy that was an important source of revenue to the Port,” Bretz said.
Rogue has vacated its former distillery building and the Port has since leased portions of it to a marine electronics company and a fish processor. Three Rogue employees are being allowed into the main 47,000 square foot building to shut down operations and Rogue’s nearby barrel-making facility is empty.
Rogue executives met with Port of Newport officials the morning it closed to notify them the company was ceasing operations. Rogue’s employees were notified the same day. Other than the details of the bankruptcy filing, Rogue has not commented publicly on how it ran into financial trouble.
But according to an email exchange obtained by the Lincoln Chronicle, Schultz, said the company’s board found there was no “path forward to meaningful profitability.”
“… we decided that it was in the best interest of our employees, creditors and shareholders to shut down now with the resources that we have to maximize our ability to pay our stakeholders,” Schultz wrote.
