The Provident Bank bought back Smuttynose Brewing Co. for $8.25 million following a foreclosure auction on Friday, but a Portsmouth, N.H.-based investor said that he is planning to purchase the popular brewery, SeaCoastOnline.com reported. Norman Rice said that he entered a verbal agreement with Provident Bank in the minutes that followed the 2 p.m. auction at Smuttynose’s facility. Provident Bank President Chuck Withee said that multiple other buyers also approached him after the auction about buying Smuttynose and that no sale has been made, but Rice spoke confidently of his plans to revitalize the struggling beer company. The sale will not include the Portsmouth Brewery, also owned by Smuttynose founder Peter Egelston and his partner Joanne Francis. They will continue to operate the Portsmouth Brewery. Egelston announced the foreclosure auction in January, saying that an explosion of microbreweries caused the company’s growth to decelerate, among other factors. The company’s financial models were based on 20 years of consistent growth, he said. The brewery launched in 1994 and opened its current state-of-the-art brewing facility in Hampton, N.H., in 2014.
