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B U S I N E S S L E A D E R S O F T H E Y E A R AWARD VO L . X X X I I N O. V I M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 2 6 14 was not much — it was a pretty rough area. ere was nothing on the waterfront, there was tourist-facing [property], there was no trail. [Bath Iron Works] had left. ere was not a reason to go down there. [Munjoy] Hill had good neighbors and we got [tax-increment financing] from the city — I like to say it was one of the most successful TIFs in Maine. Real estate taxes were in the $12,000 range, and now I think the city col- lects more than $500,000 in various taxes, including excise taxes, real estate and so on. MB: In the 1990s, were you confident craft beer wasn't just a fad? FF: I had been in Pensacola, Fla., at McGuire's Irish Pub and Brewery. It was so successful — I knew Portland could be a success- ful market. With [brewmaster] Alan Pugsley, we had someone with world-class capabilities. On June 15, 1992, we had a kickoff — it was a huge success and I knew, "We can make this happen." MB: What did your parents think of the venture? FF: My Dad had passed away — he never saw that I went into the beer business. My mom didn't drink, she had MS, but she did go into places and ask for the beer. She was a networker. My parents had a boardinghouse in Gray, so they knew about being self-suf- ficient, working for yourself. My mom was very proud of what we did in Kennebunk with Federal Jack's. My mom trusted my judge- ment and got behind it. MB: How did you fund the growth of Shipyard and the brewpubs? FF: e growth of the brewery was fueled in the early days by the neces- sity to have some place to sell the beer [outside of tourist areas] — because it was so dead in October and November in those days. I loaded beer into my S10 Blazer and drove it up to ree Dollar Dewey's [in Portland] and Great Lost Bear — that's when the craft beer thing was just starting. At the time there weren't a lot of investors and, at the time, the banks didn't really under- stand it, but what they understood was real estate. MB: What's ahead for you? FF: We're trying to grow people within our company. I've done some new ventures, like Wildcat Whiskey and we have a distillery down in Dover, N.H., in which we do Icepick Vodka. We're creating a Shipyard Gin in America — there's actually one in the UK. We're looking to branch into tequila and looking at some non-alcoholic areas. We also have a nonalcoholic Pumpkinhead coming out this fall. P e t e r V a n A l l e n , M a i n e b i z e d i t o r , c a n b e r e a c h e d a t p v a n a l l e n @ m a i n e b i z . b i z TRUSTED. RESPECTED. VALUED. HEARD. Congratulations to our 2025 employees of the year! Scan the code to read what their teammates shared about them. Celebrating Team Hancock! 2026_0311_MaineBiz_EE of Year_RELEASE.indd 1 2026_0311_MaineBiz_EE of Year_RELEASE.indd 1 2/23/26 4:31 PM 2/23/26 4:31 PM » C O N T I N U E D F RO M PA G E 1 2 Shipyard Brewing Shipyard.com 27 Hancock St., Portland Workforce: 40 What it does: Operates a brewery on Portland's East End. Forsley is also a partner in Sea Dog Brewing and a hotel on Hancock Street. We had to clean up the [future Shipyard site]. We probably took away, I'm guessing, 60 3-yard containers full of debris ... It was a pretty rough area.

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