In an effort to expand its suite of services for craft brewery clients, First Beverage Group, an advisory and investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles, yesterday announced the hiring of longtime industry veteran David Duffy.
Duffy, who has previously held sales and marketing positions for Great Divide Brewing, New Belgium Brewing and Boston Beer, had been working with First Beverage Group as an affiliate advisor, providing a variety of consulting services to craft brewers via his Colorado Craft Advisors outfit.
“A lot of craft breweries, both large and small, already look to David for advice,” said Townsend Ziebold, the firm’s managing partner. “We are basically formalizing, by bringing him in house, what we have already been doing.”
As part of the agreement, Ziebold told Brewbound, Colorado Craft Advisors will become a wholly owned subsidiary of First Beverage Group.
“The beer business is very important to us as a firm,” he said. “We are trying to go above and beyond what traditional banks provide, which is simply transaction services.”
Duffy got his start in the beverage industry by running on- and off-premise sales routes at a local Coca-Cola distributor and later worked as general manager of a beer distributor in Colorado, First Beverage said in a press statement. With over 14 years of experience in field sales, sales management, and marketing with multiple craft outfits, Duffy will provide First Beverage with much needed consulting support as the company looks to expand its investment banking services.
“He does it all,” said Ziebold. “He is great at helping people understand go-to market strategies, how to add new territories, profitability, pricing strategies and even brand refreshes. Given that we specialize in beverages and that beer is clearly one of our most important areas, having Duffy increases our commitment to the sector.”
Duffy founded Colorado Craft Advisors, a beverage-focused consultancy focusing on sales and marketing solutions for suppliers and distributors in 2012, and specializes in growth strategies, portfolio architecture, pricing, branding and market development.
“After what has essentially been a two-year interview process, I feel fortunate and excited to formalize my relationship with First Beverage,” Duffy said in the release. “This is a company that already has a phenomenal reputation for skill and results in providing growth solutions for entrepreneurial beverage companies, but what really attracted me to First Beverage is how they take their partnerships to a much deeper level. “
First Beverage Group has acted as the advisor on a number of recent craft transactions, including Southern Tier’s sales to Ulysses Management, 10 Barrel’s sale to Anheuser-Busch InBev and Boulevard Brewing’s sale to Duvel Moortgat.