Brewery, Winery and Distillery Feasibility Study in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area

What SBA's own loan files show about beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) lending in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.

90 beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) loans in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington records 90 approved beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) loans over FY2017 to FY2026, worth $40.8 million gross. Loans center near $251,850, and the middle half fall between $75,000 and $496,250. Beside the class nationally, Philadelphia's median is 0.87x of the national median, below it.

Rank 5 of 443: mix and counties in Philadelphia

7(a) is the larger program here: 85 loans in 7(a), 5 in 504. Fixed-asset spending in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington is tied to the 5 loans under 504, while the other 85 are 7(a) loans. Franchise loans are 0.00% of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington record. On rank, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington is 5 of 443 nationally for beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries), and beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) is 11 of 39 among the classes in the area. A location quotient of 1.20x puts beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) taking a bigger share of Philadelphia lending than it does nationally. Philadelphia County, PA tops the county list at 22 loans; Montgomery County, PA follows with 18, then Chester County, PA with 13. With DE, MD, NJ, PA all inside the Philadelphia area, rules and costs can vary across one project search.

Who holds the 90 Philadelphia loans

Annual loans peak in FY2017 at 16 ($4.0 million) and bottom out in FY2024 at 7 ($2.2 million). The Philadelphia trend omits any year too thin to print, and no omitted year means zero lending. Philadelphia 7(a) holders, ranked by loans: 23 loans and $3.0 million at Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company; 10 loans and $7.3 million at Univest Bank and Trust Co; 9 loans and $2.5 million at First Commonwealth Bank. Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company holds the most loans, while Univest Bank and Trust Co holds the most dollars. For Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company, the $3.0 million sums the 23 loans SBA lists against it. Cancellation reached at least 6.8% of approvals in the area, and the true share could be higher. A loss rate for beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington needs a larger disbursed cohort than 90 loans supply, so the rate stays withheld.

The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington study: demand, cost, coverage, appraisal at $496,250

A Philadelphia study starts with state permits, distribution reach and shelf space against bigger producers; the 90-loan record cannot sit in for them. Then Philadelphia costs: brewing or production equipment, packaging and cold storage and tanks, each checked for Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington and compared with the $251,850 median loan. Stress Philadelphia earnings with a $75,000 loan and a $496,250 loan, then check where coverage weakens. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington appraisers will value the facility, operating permits and inventory in process one at a time, so the Philadelphia, PA study ought to do the same. A $40.8 million record cannot approve a Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington project, and the figures promise no outcome.

Method for Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington's 90 loans

The project county puts each of Philadelphia, PA's 90 loans in the area. County names, Philadelphia County, PA among them, are paired to Philadelphia, PA using the July 2023 delineation. The code behind the 90 Philadelphia loans covers businesses that produce beer, wine or spirits, and the code does not show whether a site also welcomes visitors on the premises, and wineries are counted with breweries and distilleries. Rates in Philadelphia name their own cohort years in Philadelphia, PA, and the two outcome rates are measured over different spans of years.

SBA beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) loans in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area

Loans approved, FY2017 to FY202690
Gross dollars approved$40.8 million
Median loan$251,850
Middle half of loans, from$75,000
Middle half of loans, to$496,250
SBA 7(a) loans85
SBA 504 loans5
Franchise share of loans0.00%
Rank among metro and micro areas for beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) loans5 of 443
Rank of beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) among the classes in this area11 of 39
Location quotient (share of loans against the national share)1.20x
Median loan against the national median for the class0.87x

Cancellation and charge-off

Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor)6.8%
The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling)6.8%
Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor)withheld

Both rates are floors. SBA withholds the status of open loans, so a loan counts as charged off only once SBA reports it; a rate needs at least 30 loans in its cohort and is otherwise not reported.

SBA beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) loans approved in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area, by fiscal year

05101520FY2017FY2018FY2019FY2020FY2021FY2022FY2023FY2024FY2025FY2026Loans, FY2017: 16Loans, FY2018: 10Loans, FY2019: 12Loans, FY2021: 12Loans, FY2022: 8Loans, FY2024: 7Loans, FY2025: 8Loans, FY2026: 8
Fiscal yearLoansDollars
FY201716$4.0 million
FY201810$1.7 million
FY201912$1.8 million
FY2020withheldwithheld
FY202112$6.9 million
FY20228$5.5 million
FY2023withheldwithheld
FY20247$2.2 million
FY20258$5.7 million
FY20268$5.1 million

Most active SBA lenders

SBA 7(a): lenders by loans approved (the current holder of each loan, as SBA reports it)
LenderLoansDollars
Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company23$3.0 million
Univest Bank and Trust Co10$7.3 million
First Commonwealth Bank9$2.5 million
Fulton Bank, National Association6$3.8 million

Lenders with 5 or more loans here; a lender with fewer is not listed, and loans SBA or a receiver holds are counted but never listed as a lender.

Where the loans are, by county

CountyLoans
Philadelphia County, PA22
Montgomery County, PA18
Chester County, PA13
Camden County, NJ12
Burlington County, NJ7
New Castle County, DE6
Bucks County, PA5

Counties with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are not listed.

Metro is the CBSA (metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area) of the loan's project county, July 2023 delineation (OMB Bulletin 23-01). The county is matched by name (manifests/ld2/county-cbsa-map.csv); a loan whose county cannot be placed in a 2023 CBSA is left out of every metro.

The code says the borrower makes beer, wine or spirits; a taproom, tasting room or event use is not visible. The class holds breweries, wineries and distilleries only; the rest of manufacturing is not in it.

Shared code: Wineries are in this class.

A value marked withheld rests on fewer than 5 loans, or is withheld so that such a figure cannot be derived from other published figures.

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) and 504 loan-level FOIA files (data.sba.gov), as of 2026-09-30; areas from the U.S. Census Bureau CBSA delineation, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01); Loan Analytics metro cell MA-37980-C08.

Related feasibility study pages

Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a beverage manufacturing (breweries, wineries, distilleries) project in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area, financed under SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry or a conventional bank loan. Tell us the project and the lender's deadline, and we reply with scope, timeline and fee.

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