Craft Brew Alliance — which owns the Kona, Redhook, Widmer Brothers, and Omission brands, as well as three smaller craft breweries — has extended CEO Andy Thomas’ employment contract for another three years, according to an SEC filing.
Thomas’ new contract, which is slated to terminate on December 31, 2021, and replaces a previous agreement that was scheduled to expire on June 30, 2019, includes a $75,000 signing bonus.
It’s unclear from the filing what Thomas’ base salary will be in 2019, but in 2017 he was paid $452,170. He also received approximately $500,000 in stock awards and incentive compensation of $289,695 for a total compensation of more than $1.2 million, according to CBA’s proxy statement.
Thomas previously earned base salaries of $439,006 in 2016, $425,192 in 2015 and $400,000 in 2014 — his first year as CEO.
Since taking over as CEO, Thomas has overseen a transformation of the publicly traded Portland, Oregon-headquartered craft beer company that included the 2018 acquisitions of Massachusetts’ Cisco Brewers, North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountain Brewery and Florida’s Wynwood Brewing, as well as the 2016 renegotiation of a commercial agreement with Anheuser-Busch InBev, which owns a 31.4 percent stake in the smaller CBA.
In the process of renegotiating CBA’s master distribution and contract brewing agreements with A-B InBev, Thomas also laid the groundwork for a possible takeover. As part of the contract, A-B has an opportunity to make a “qualifying offer” for CBA at a minimum of $24.50 per share in 2019. If A-B does not make a qualifying offer by August, it must pay CBA $20 million.
As CEO, Thomas also led the implementation of a Kona-plus strategy that prioritized sales of Kona beer across the U.S., while simultaneously pulling back distribution of Widmer and Redhook offerings and driving increased sales of its acquired craft brands in their respective home markets.
In addition to those moves, Thomas also made the decision to shutter CBA’s Redhook brewery in Woodinville, Washington, while simultaneously investing behind smaller, innovation-focused production locations in Seattle, Portland and Hawaii.
Meanwhile, CBA chief operating officer Scott Mennen’s employment agreement was also extended to December 31, 2021. He will also receive a cash signing bonus totaling $37,697.
In 2017, Mennen was paid a base salary of $262,650. He also received a stock award of $120,412 and incentive compensation of $121,888, for a total compensation package of $513,660, according to CBA’s proxy statement.