Boston Beer Company chief marketing officer Jon Potter will depart the country’s second-largest craft brewery at the end of the month, the company disclosed in an SEC filing issued yesterday.
Potter, who joined the beer, cider and flavored malt beverage producer in August 2016, is credited with engineering the company’s “Fill Your Glass” advertising campaign that debuted during last year’s Major League Baseball World Series.
He will officially step down from the CMO post on July 31, the company said, noting that “details” of his departure have not been finalized.
In a statement issued to Brewbound, newly appointed Boston Beer CEO Dave Burwick thanked Potter for his “creative thinking and insights,” and his “many significant contributions to the marketing team and the organization.”
“After two years of weekly commuting from Western Connecticut, Jon has decided to leave Boston Beer, effective July 31st, to spend more time with his family,” he wrote. “We plan to initiate the search for a new CMO immediately.”
According to SEC filings, the 54-year-old Potter was paid a base salary of about $479,000 in 2017. He also received a $250,000 hiring bonus on March 10, 2017, that he would have been required to repay on a prorated basis if he departed the company during the following 12-month period. Potter was also awarded a $200,000 cash incentive bonus in 2017.
Potter leaves Boston Beer Company at a time when portfolio-wide off-premise retail volume sales are up more than 16 percent, despite continued declines (-14.8 percent) for flagship beer offering Samuel Adams Boston Lager, according to market research firm IRI Worldwide.
The company’s Samuel Adams seasonal offerings, as well as its Twisted Tea, Truly Spiked & Sparkling and Angry Orchard Rose brands are driving much of its current growth, according to IRI data.
Prior to joining Boston Beer, Potter worked as the managing director for Moet Hennessy’s Chandon California division. He had previously served as that company’s CMO and executive vice president between 2012 and 2015.
Potter — who represented Great Britain as a field hockey player in three Olympic Games, winning a gold medal in 1988 and a bronze medal in 1984 – also spent two years with McKinney Rogers, a global business execution consultancy, and 13 years with Diageo, where he held various roles including CMO of the company’s North America unit.