SCRANTON — A Scranton family steeped in media tradition has diversified into the brewing industry.
The Lynett and Haggerty families, owners of Times-Shamrock Communications which publishes The Times-Tribune and The Citizens’ Voice and owns The Republican-Herald, has purchased a majority interest in Flying Fish Brewing Co., a successful craft brewery based in Somerdale, New Jersey.
The family’s expertise in marketing, events and promotions will help the brewery continue to grow and expand its footprint, said Bobby Lynett, manager of L&H Brewing Partners, the entity that now holds a majority interest in the Flying Fish. They declined to disclose the cost of their acquisition.
“Flying Fish is a nice brewery with good people and a great product,” Lynett, a publisher of The Times-Tribune, said. “We want to help it grow.”
Flying Fish currently employs 33 people who produce about 24,000 barrels of beer each year.
Gene Muller, founder of Flying Fish, said he began looking for new partners when some initial investors began to cash out on their investment in the company. He joked that the Scranton family emerged as a good fit “because they are Irish.”
Muller, 61, believes Flying Fish will benefit from events and other business interests of the Lynett-Haggerty families, who he refers to as “The Scranton Guys.”
“There are obvious synergies,” he said. “We saw an opportunity to inject some enthusiasm into the company and take care of our initial investors. The Scranton Guys are part of a 100-year-old company. They understand the long-term horizon.”
The capital for L&H Brewing Partners came from some individual family members and Elk Lake Capital, set up by the family to invest in non-media companies to add diversity to the family’s holdings beyond Times-Shamrock’s media holdings of newspapers, radio stations and outdoor advertising. Elk Lake already owns a land-surveying company and water-testing company.
Elk Lake principals looked at a range of opportunities, including a hotel key manufacturer and lodging companies. Flying Fish best matched the family’s three-pronged criteria. The company had to be financially sound, the management team would have to be willing to stay on board and the company had to be able to benefit from the family’s experience and other businesses they would bring to the table.
“They make the beer and they are the experts on beer,” Lynett said. “We want to help them on the business side, help get the word out about the product and introduce it to more consumers.”
Flying Fish, for example, wants a stronger presence in Northeast Pennsylvania and Baltimore, both markets where Times-Shamrock has media assets. The family, familiar with running larger businesses, can assist with human resources, accounting, finances and strategic planning tasks which small- and mid-sized companies often struggle.
The deal was formalized quietly on March 11.
Flying Fish and the Lynett-Haggerty family share a similar business culture promoting their communities and environmental sustainability, Lynett said.
Lynett, Times-Tribune publisher Matthew E. Haggerty and Times-Tribune publisher George V. Lynett Jr. will have spots on Flying Fish’s board of directors.
Muller founded Flying Fish in 1995. It quickly became a phenomenon in the early days of the World Wide Web as he used the emerging platform to chronicle his work creating a craft brewery.
As a forebear of New Jersey’s craft beer movement, Muller has been a strong voice in Trenton on behalf of the brewing industry.
Philadelphia-based beer journalist Lew Bryson described Flying Fish taking off quickly in the beginning, plateauing and more recently starting to grow again and generating excitement.
“Flying Fish was doing the same thing they always had as everyone else was doing new beers, one-off batches and experimenting,” Bryson said. “They had a great name and geographic position that sustained them.” The Exit series of beers
, based on New Jersey geography and heritage, put Flying Fish back on the radar of the beer world, Bryson said.
Since then, Flying Fish has been more innovative with an oyster stout and wild rice beer, he noted. When Flying Fish moved into a new facility in 2012, the beer’s quality improved further.