A judge ordered Deb Carey, owner of New Glarus Brewing Co., to pay a group of shareholders over $82,000 for labor, leased space and material costs diverted from the brewery to the distillery the company is building, called Sugar River Distillery.
The order came from a Dane County court, and Carey told the Wisconsin State Journal that it was a number well below what the plaintiffs had sought. She also told the newspaper that it was “a little disappointing, but it certainly is not a win for the other side.”
The case was filed in August 2021 to cash in on shares of the brewery that were estimated to be worth millions of dollars.
Judge Diane Schlipper said that Carey used brewery resources from 2018 to 2024 and had essentially given herself a “constructive dividend,” and the labor value diverted to the distillery equated to about $220,000.
