Brewery, Winery and Distillery Feasibility Study in Wisconsin

A class that weighs heavily here

Wisconsin's SBA lending leans on beverage makers far more than the national book does. A 2.02x location quotient measures that tilt, the state ranks 7 of 53 for these loans, and beverage makers place 9 of 39 inside Wisconsin's own class ranking. Over FY2017 to FY2026 there were 161 approvals worth $91.7 million. The median of $298,000 is 1.03x the national figure for the class, so loan size itself is close to the national level, and the page is shaped by its concentration among a few lenders.

Lending has fallen since its peak. FY2021 produced 29 approvals worth $28.6 million, but FY2025 had 6 and FY2026 just 1, worth $325,000. The FY2026 figure covers the whole fiscal year, which ended on 2026-09-30. Anyone reading this record should treat it as a history of the earlier period rather than a statement about what lenders will approve now.

WBD, Inc. and the Wisconsin 504 channel

SBA 504 plays a large role here, with 41 loans against 120 under 7(a), and one development company holds most of it: WBD, Inc. holds 36 Wisconsin beverage loans worth $38.6 million. That makes 504 the natural route for a producer buying or building its own plant. Among 7(a) holders, Nicolet National Bank holds 18, Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation 9, and Byline Bank, IncredibleBank and Summit CU 5 each, the Byline loans worth $5.0 million. The middle half of loans ran from $149,900 to $677,000, and no Wisconsin borrower in the class was a franchise, a 0.00% share.

Clean credit, and what a study still has to prove

At least 9.1% of approvals from FY2017 through FY2024 never funded, with a ceiling of 9.7%. Of 105 Wisconsin loans disbursed in FY2017 through FY2021, 1.9% have gone to charge-off, and none of those losses came inside five years: the five-year rate is 0.00%. Both rates are floors that later events can raise, and they should be read as a record of past repayment on these loans and no more.

That record helps a lender, yet it does not replace project-level proof. A Wisconsin feasibility study should test distribution reach and sales volume, and it must model any taproom, tasting room or event revenue on its own, since the SBA code records only that a Wisconsin borrower produces beer, wine or spirits. Dane County holds 29 approvals, Milwaukee 21, Brown 14, Winnebago 11 and Sheboygan 10, which gives comparison points inside the state. Equipment and building cost should come from current bids. Coverage of debt service has to hold at the loan size requested, and the appraisal must value a production building whose resale market is thin. Wisconsin wineries are counted in the same class as its brewers and distillers.