Bell’s Brewery has appointed Carrie K. Yunker to the newly created role of executive vice president.
Yunker, who has worked at Bell’s for nearly two decades and most recently served as VP of human resources, will work with Bell’s founder and president Larry Bell to oversee all aspects of managing the company, as well as leading Bell’s senior leadership team and acting as a go-between to the Michigan craft brewery’s board of directors.
“What the board was looking for was somebody that they could rely on in case something happens to me,” Larry Bell told Brewbound. “That’s part of it, that we need some sort of succession planning for Bell’s.”
The role is designed to grow with Yunker’s career.
“Right now, I would say we don’t have a super well-defined, clearly laid out job description there,” Bell said. “It’s more something that will be worked into, and really assists me in my management duties and is there to help advise the board as well.”
In a press release, Bell’s credited Yunker with developing the brewery’s “highly regarded and sought-after culture.” The company also called her “an industry leader in engagement, talent management and strategic planning.”
“Carrie has the passion, skill and expertise to help lead this company even further. Her experience, compassion and strategic mindset are invaluable to the future of this company,” Bell said in the release.
Yunker started at the Comstock, Michigan-headquartered brewery as a part-time receptionist while attending Western Michigan University, and she has moved up the ranks throughout the years. Yunker is also a member of the executive committee for the National Craft Beer Human Resource Group.
“She has leadership in the industry,” Bell said, pointing to Yunker’s role with the National Craft Beer Human Resource Group. “She’s pretty well aware of the industry and what’s going on.”
Yunker’s promotion follows a strong year for Bell’s in off-premise retailers. According to market research firm IRI, Bell’s Brewery was the 21st largest beer category vendor in off-premise retailers in 2020 as the craft brewery’s dollar sales increased 26.1%, to $109.7 million, through December 27, 2020.
Bell’s flagship Two Hearted Ale was the 14th best-selling craft beer brand in 2020, increasing off-premise dollar sales 21.3%, to $54.9 million, IRI reported. The company’s seasonal program increased sales 13.9%, to more than $26 million.
Bell’s big innovation of 2020, Bell’s Light Hearted IPA, was the fourth largest new craft brand of the year, with more than $7 million in sales, Bump Williams Consulting reported, citing Nielsen Total U.S. AOC plus Liquor and convenience data from NielsenIQ through December 26, 2020.
However, Bell’s total volume declined by 6.5% in 2020 due to the loss of on-premise business following the shut downs of bars and restaurants caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those closures coincided with the roll out of Bell’s summer seasonal, Oberon.
“That’s it for us for summer volume,” Bell said. “We had tens of thousands of kegs out in the marketplace, the governor comes to have a beer, and it’s a big deal for us. So the pandemic actually hit us at our most sensitive time of the year, which was really a tough one for us.”
With draft towers closed nationwide, Bell’s pivoted to focus on 12-packs and cans and bottles. However, draft beer accounted for 38% of Bell’s volume in 2019, and the on-premise channel has not fully reopened in most states.
“We have a really solid business insights team and they’re running scenarios every day,” Bell said.
The so-far mild winter weather has allowed on-premise accounts in Michigan to make use of outdoor service spaces and the brewery’s draft sales are beginning to pick up again, Bell said. But Bell’s is still leaning into packaging beer for off-premise sales while the future of on-premise service remains unclear.
“How do you plan for that? You order all the F-ing cans you possible can,” he said, his polite Midwestern vocabulary preventing him from using profanity.
Bell’s newest year-round offering — No, Yeah golden ale — plays up the quirky politeness of the Bell’s home market and is available on draft and in 6-pack cans in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Minnesota. The beer checks in at 4.5% and is designed to “appeal to those who are looking for another alternative to higher ABV beers, something that is crisp and refreshing and not too hoppy,” Bell said in a press release about No,Yeah.
“Not every beer has to be the beer that the online beer cognoscenti talk about,” he told Brewbound. “It plays into all kinds of social occasions where somebody wants to have a good tasting beer but doesn’t want to think about it and analyze it all the time.”
As an easy-drinking beer, No, Yeah filled a need in Bell’s portfolio, which is stacked with IPAs.
“Two Hearted still drives the bus for us,” Bell said. “It’s funny, as much as people focus on hazy and New England IPAs, we sell a whole lot of Two Hearted.
“There’s still a lot of breweries that sell a whole lot of, let’s call it regular old IPA,” he continued. “That might not get as much chatter online, but there’s a lot of people drinking that.”
Bell’s dabbles in the hazy IPA segment with Official IPA, which had a solid sophomore year. And Light Hearted, an IPA with 110 calories that checks in at 3.5% ABV, “had a really good year,” despite rolling out just as pandemic-related closures began, Bell said.
The 35-year-old craft brewery’s innovation strategy is to allow new offerings to grow roots, rather than just giving drinkers something new for the sake of it.
“Craft drinkers, they’re still promiscuous, they’re still looking for something new,” Bell said. “What we’re trying to do is have that innovation, bring out new products, but have them be stalwarts in our portfolio and build them as brands and not just be flashes in the pan.”
HopSlam Ale, the sought-after double IPA specialty offering Bell’s releases every January, launched in bottles this year, due to the pandemic-driven scarcity of cans.
“People seem to be loving that, and we are selling lots of cases of bottles,” Bell said. “Everybody loves to talk about HopSlam — ‘Last year’s batch was better, dude’ — we don’t seem to be having that so much. People are just happy to have it, so our wholesalers have been depleting their warehouses ahead of schedule.”
As more craft brewers launch hard seltzers to capture a piece of that multi-billion dollar segment, including New Belgium and Sierra Nevada, Bell’s has no plans to follow suit.
“We’re beer people, and we’ve always been beer people,” Bell said. “I think there would be a lot of pushback from my employees if I came to them and said ‘Let’s put out a seltzer.’”
The brewery is investing in a new canning line and a pasteurizer in case any beyond-beer products or non-alcoholic beers come into focus on the horizon.
“You get into some of those non-alc things where the FDA rules the day and it becomes worrisome just about making sure the product is pure and clean,” Bell said. “So we’ll get that piece of equipment online that gives us a lot of run room with different ideas that we may have.”
Bell’s has no current plans to introduce a non-alcoholic offering, but a Bell’s launch in that growing segment seems likelier than a hard seltzer.
“We have done tests in the past and produce some very tasty stuff,” Bell said of N/A beer. “We’ve been pretty busy with other projects. I wouldn’t rule it out, but I’m not telling you there’s a plan to bring one to the market right now.”
Bell’s recently announced distribution moves in Southern California, Southern Indiana and a return to Virginia after a 21-month absence. However, the company does not plan to expand to new markets in 2021, but has been in talks with potential new wholesalers.
“Those markets being far away from Kalamazoo, those wholesalers would prefer to be receiving product in cans as far as transportation costs, and we probably can’t do that this year,” Bell said. “We do have Virginia back, which was really nice for us this year, but I really doubt it will open any new markets.”