Bell's Brewery

Ownership & corporate history

1. Acquired by LionNovember 2021
   What the sources say

   Acquisition of Bell's Brewery by Lion, through its craft division Lion Little World Beverages, announced 10 November 2021 and closed 31 December 2021. Larry Bell made a full exit. The sale included Upper Hand Brewery, Escanaba, which the archive does not yet hold. New Belgium Brewing Company served as the vehicle for the transaction and supplied a significant part of the purchase price, and Bell's was integrated into New Belgium afterwards — roles recorded here because they are evidenced, and NOT recorded as ownership because being a vehicle and a funder is not being an owner.

2. Subsidiary of Kirin Holdings Company, LimitedDecember 2021
   What the sources say

   From the closing of the Lion transaction Bell's sits within the Kirin group. This is group affiliation, which is what subsidiary_of means in this archive, and it remained true across the 2023 absorption into New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc. — the group did not change, the immediate company did.

3. Merged into New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc.2023
   What the sources say

   Bell's Brewery, Inc. was absorbed into and merged with New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc. in 2023, ending its separate corporate existence. This is a corporate succession, not an acquisition: the entity did not change hands, it stopped. Reported more precisely as December 2023 in Kirin's disclosure, with a Michigan State Tax Commission industrial-facility certificate transferred from Bell's Brewery, Inc. to New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc. in November 2023 — neither of those documents has been reconciled as a canonical Source, so the date is held at YEAR precision rather than padded.

4. Owned by New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc.2023
   What the sources say

   Since the 2023 absorption the Bell's brewery and brand have sat inside New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc. A 2026 USPTO record lists New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc. as the current owner of a Bell's trademark. The ownership STATE is recorded separately from the merger EVENT that began it.

Ownership history is kept as dated events, so a change of owner never overwrites the one before it.

Where it is

42.28400, -85.45400

Supplied by the research pass; method not recorded