Brewery, Winery and Distillery Feasibility Study in South Carolina

Larger loans than the national craft record

South Carolina beverage manufacturing loans are large relative to the class. SBA approved 35 loans to breweries, wineries and distilleries from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $30.3 million, and the median of $530,000 is 1.83x the class median across the country. The median is where this cell breaks from the wider South Carolina book and from breweries nationally. Loans in the middle half run $310,000 to $804,750. The state ranks 30 of 53, the class holds 17 of 39 places in the state's mix, and a location quotient of 0.86x puts it below its national share.

Lenders, programs and places

The 7(a) program carried 31 loans and 504 carried 4, and no loan is a franchise. Only Countybank is named, with 5 loans and $5.1 million. Greenville County dominates with 15 loans, Charleston has 6, Spartanburg has 3 and Lexington has 2.

Timing and cancellations

FY2021 produced 11 loans and $8.7 million and FY2023 produced 7 loans and $9.4 million, but the last two full years were thin: FY2024 recorded one loan of $403,400 and FY2025 one of $392,400. Roughly one in five South Carolina producer files, 19.4% at minimum, was cancelled, and the ceiling is 22.6% once loans still undisbursed are counted. The charge-off rate is held back, as too few producer loans have funded long enough to reach the 30-loan minimum.

What a producer's study has to settle

A brewery, winery or distillery is a manufacturer first and a hospitality business second, and a South Carolina study has to treat both. On the production side it needs capacity, equipment cost, raw material supply and the permits and bonds required to make and sell alcohol. On the retail side it must size the taproom or tasting room: visitors, spend per head, events and any distribution through wholesalers. Because the loan data cannot see tasting rooms, a lender should ask for them to be modelled in detail. Inventory ties up cash for months, especially for aged products, so working capital must be sized. Coverage has to hold through a slow first year. The cancellation floor says that deals stall over licensing and cost, which the study should settle before closing.

A coding limit

The industry code tells us just that the borrower produces beer, wine or spirits. Any taproom, tasting room or event space the business runs stays out of view, and wineries are counted in this class.