Brewery, Winery and Distillery Feasibility Study in Georgia

A large median loan and a thin recent pipeline

Georgia's beverage makers borrow large sums for a craft trade. The state's 87 SBA approvals for breweries, wineries and distilleries in FY2017 to FY2026 came to $77.4 million, and the median loan of $522,000 is 1.80x what the class borrows nationally at the median. Our screen flags no metric for Georgia, because a metric would have to differ from both Georgia's all-asset record and the national class figure, and none does. Volume is modest: Georgia ranks 19 of 53 for the class, a location quotient of 0.76x means producers hold less of Georgia's SBA lending than of the country's, and inside Georgia it places 18 of 39 by count.

Approvals by year

Approvals peaked at 20 in FY2021, worth $18.3 million, then fell away: 3 loans in FY2024, 8 worth $10.6 million in FY2025, and 0 recorded in FY2026. SBA 7(a) did almost all of it, with 83 loans against 4 under SBA 504, and no approval went to a franchise, the franchise share being 0.00%. The middle half of loans runs from $235,000 to $1.0 million. Lender holdings are led by United Community Bank holds 10 loans worth $8.3 million, Community Bank of Pickens County 8 worth $9.6 million, then Bank OZK with 7, Fifth Third Bank with 6 and Colony Bank with 5. Gwinnett County has 12 approvals, and Cobb and Fulton have 10 each.

What happened after approval

Cancellation took no fewer than 12.7% of Georgia's FY2017 to FY2024 beverage approvals, and 13.9% on the ceiling that treats undisbursed loans as lost to cancellation. Charge-offs tell a split story. Of 47 Georgia producer loans funded in FY2017 to FY2021, a floor of 8.5% is now charged off, while the five-year figure stands at 0.00%, so every loss so far came after a loan's fifth year. The screen does not mark either outcome floor as distinctive.

The late charge-offs tell a borrower and a lender what a Georgia study must test. Demand has to be split by channel, since a producer's code says nothing about whether revenue comes from distribution, self-distribution or a taproom, and each has its own margin and its own licensing path. Cost covers brewhouse, still or press equipment, tanks, utilities and the build-out, priced now rather than from a vendor's brochure. Debt service coverage should hold past the opening years, when sales must stand on repeat customers and shelf placement. The appraisal is the hard part: specialised production equipment and a purpose-fitted building may have few buyers, so the study should support value on income and test the liquidation case.

The class boundary matters here. Georgia's figures cover producers only: the industry code marks a borrower that brews, ferments or distills, so a tasting room, taproom or event business riding on top is not visible; wineries are counted in this class, and the rest of manufacturing is not.