Yuengling

Yuengling a billionaire

The pride of Pottsville has a new distinction

Dick Yuengling has made Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires. (MONICA CABRERA / MORNING CALL FILE PHOTO / March 6, 2013)

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By Spencer Soper, Of The Morning Call
9:44 p.m. EST, March 6, 2013

Chalk up another distinction for Pottsville brewery D.G. Yuengling and Son, which proudly boasts on its labels that it is the oldest brewery in America.

In 2011, the family business became the biggest American-owned brewery.

And now its fifth-generation owner Dick Yuengling Jr., who transformed the company from a regional brewery serving thirsty coal miners into an East Coast powerhouse, has made an annual list of billionaires published by Forbes magazine. And he’s the only American on the list who made his fortune by making beer.

The 69-year-old beer-maker has a net worth of $1.3 billion, making him one of only eight billionaires living in Pennsylvania, according to Forbes. It also further differentiates him from most of his neighbors in economically depressed Schuylkill County, where the median household income is $44,150, 15 percent below the state median, according to the U.S. Census.

Other Pennsylvania billionaires, according to Forbes, are:

Hansjoerg Wyss, 78, a citizen of Switzerland who lives in West Chester and made his fortune selling a medical device company to Johnson & Johnson. He has a net worth of $8.7 billion.

Mary Alice Dorrance Malone, 63, granddaughter of the founder of Campbell Soup, who lives in Coatesville and has a net worth of $2.7 billion.

Henry Hillman, 94, who diversified his family fortune by investing in real estate and providing venture capital. The Pittsburgh resident has a net worth of $2.3 billion.

Richard Hayne, 65, the Philadelphia founder of Urban Outfitters clothing stores, who has a net worth of $1.6 billion.

Susan Hirt Hagan, 76, the only daughter of Erie Indemnity insurance company’s founder. The Erie resident has a net worth of $1.6 billion.

Richard Scaife, 80, investor and nephew of Andrew Mellon who lives in Pittsburgh and has a net worth of $1.4 billion.

Edward Stack, 58, who purchased his father’s small bait shop business and expanded it into the national chain Dick’s Sporting Goods. The Sewickley, Allegheny County, resident has a net worth of $1.1 billion.

Sorry, Lehigh Valley. None of Forbes billionaires lives here.

Yuengling makes beer at two breweries in Schuylkill County and another in Florida, which is sold through a network of wholesalers, distributors and retailers in 14 states.

In 2011, it surpassed Samuel Adams-maker Boston Beer to become the largest American-owned brewery. The most popular mega-beer brands sold in the United States, including Budweiser and Coors, are owned by foreign companies.

In 2012, Yuengling sold 2.8 million barrels of beer, up 10.6 percent from the previous year. That amounts to 1.3 percent of the United States beer market and makes Yuengling the country’s No. 6 brand, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights in Suffern, N.Y., a magazine that tracks beer sales.