Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has entered into an agreement with a strategic financial advisor to do so, it announced Friday.

The company said in a press release that the move will allow Urban Chestnut to undergo a financial reorganization without disrupting brewing operations. No jobs will be lost and Urban Chestnut’s products and locations will remain the same, the statement said. The company’s leadership team of David Wolfe, Florian Kuplent and Jon Shine will also remain in place.

Wolfe, co-founder of Urban Chestnut, said in a statement that the company will work with an investment partner, Brian Travers.

The move could potentially help Urban Chestnut ease its financial woes. The brewery has defaulted on two loans for years and now owes two creditors more than $400,000, according to two recent lawsuits.

A lawsuit filed in May alleges that the company took out a 10-year, $50,000 loan in July 2013 but failed to make payments for about seven years. A second lawsuit filed in May alleges that Urban Chestnut made only $16,000 in interest payments on a $100,000 loan that is now due.

Urban Chestnut’s press release cites the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor that has led to financial pressures, a hurdle seen across the craft beer industry. Rising costs, interest rate hikes and changing consumer habits led O’Fallon Brewery to also file for bankruptcy protection last year.

Urban Chestnut was founded in 2010 by Wolfe and Kuplent.

In January 2011, the first location, Midtown Brewery & Biergarten, opened in the Covenant Blu-Grand Center neighborhood of St. Louis. Three years later, the second location opened in The Grove. A third Urban Chestnut brewery operates in the Hallertau region of Bavaria.

No spokesperson for Urban Chestnut was available for comment.