Westbrook, Maine-based Mast Landing Brewing will transition from Night Shift Distributing (NSD) to Homegrown Distribution (HGD) for its Massachusetts distribution, effective October 16.
Mast Landing is the latest brewery to publicize distribution changes, after NSD announced it had sold the distribution rights of its Night Shift Brewing brand to Sheehan Family Companies. Sheehan is slated to begin selling Night Shift offerings at its three Bay State wholesalers — Craft Massachusetts, L. Knife & Son and Seaboard Products — on October 18.
“We unfortunately had a very short timeline to make a decision on selecting a new partner with the notice we were given,” Mast Landing VP of sales Kevin McGlynn told Brewbound. “Ultimately our conversations with Homegrown and [Homegrown president] Brian Murphy led us to conclude that HGD was going to be the best vehicle to carry the Mast Landing brand into the future.”
McGlynn said the brewery sought the opinions of many of its retailers across Massachusetts on possible distributors before making a decision.
“At the end of the day if the retailers don’t like working with your wholesale partner you are going to face an additional uphill battle to get your beer in the hands of the consumer and with the market already being so competitive that’s not a battle worth taking on,” he said.
Additionally, he said the Mast Landing team appreciated that HGD was a family-oriented business, and that the distributor’s “passion for craft beer and growing HGD was similar to [the] aspirations at Mast Landing.”
Mast Landing has sold 2,350 barrels of beer in Massachusetts in the past 12 months, approximately 20% of the brewery’s sales — second only to its home state of Maine, according to McGlynn.
“It’s no secret that the state of Massachusetts is a key market for the Mast Landing brand,” Devin Pieroni, Mast Landing’s sales manager for Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, said in an emailed statement to Brewbound. “Partnering with Homegrown, I can tell their company culture aligns with ours and we enjoy this industry because we love beer but want to have fun doing it, and that truly defines the Homegrown sales team and staff.”
While HGD services Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Mast Landing will only be using its new partner in the Bay State, as it uses Craft Beer Guild Distributing of Rhode Island.
Mast Landing also distributes its products throughout Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington D.C. through various distributors.
Nearly 50 Breweries Drop Out of Mikkeller Beer Celebration Following Harassment Claims
At least 46 breweries have pulled out of the annual invitational Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen (MBCC) festival, following allegations of sexual harassment, dricrimination, and toxic workplace at Danish craft brewer Mikkeller.
Over the summer, four former Mikkeller employees — all women — shared stories of gender-based bullying, harassment, retaliation and unchecked safety protocols at multiple Mikkeller establishments between late 2014 and early 2020, reported Good Beer Hunting (GBH). All four said Mikkeller lacked formal or effective HR staff.
Other allegations against Mikkeller were included in the many stories of discrimination and harrasment shared by former-Notch Brewing production manager Brienne Allan (@ratmagnet) and @EmboldenActAdvance on Instagram in May.
This week, Women of the Bevolution, an advocacy group for women in the alcohol industry, posted to Instagram drawing attention to Mikkeller’s scheduled festival and participating breweries.
“Participating in a festival hosted by a problematic brewery directly affects whether or not change will happen in the [beer] industry,” the post was captioned. “Businesses must be held accountable. Check in with your favorite brewery on the MBCC lineup and ask where they stand. Performative action is not real action.”
At first, 112 breweries had signed up to attend the festival, scheduled for October 22-23 in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to an online tracker of brewery dropouts and statements, created by Women of the Bevolution. Of the 46 breweries that have dropped out, 29 have made public statements announcing their withdrawal.
Ontario, Canada-based breweries Dominion City Brewing and Collective Arts Brewing, as well as London-based The Kernel Brewery were among the first to withdraw from the festival, according to GBH.
“We made a mistake and we want to acknowledge it,” Dominion said in an Instagram post, prior to Bevolution’s call to action. “We failed to appreciate how lending our name and participating in this festival at this moment in particular would send exactly the wrong signal about our sincerity on these issues. With this in mind, we’ve pulled out and are no longer attending.”
Mikkeller initially responded to the backlash with its own Instagram post this week, outlining steps it said it has taken to address reports of misconduct.
“Mikkeller is 100% supportive of the agenda and drive to ensure a safe and equal work environment for everyone in the craft beer industry,” Mikkeller said in the post. “However, we must also raise our hand when Mikkeller is being portrayed in an inaccurate and unfair manner, which is the case in this recent wave of posts.”
Mikkeller’s founder, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, also addressed the controversy on Danish radio Tuesday. After additional backlash to the response, and more brewery withdrawals, Mikkeller posted another Instagram post today, with a text image: “We are sorry.”
“We need to talk,” Mikkeller said in the post’s caption. “We have issues in our places of work. We are sorry. We are responsible. We need change. We want change. For us and the industry. Please, talk to us here. We will answer everything. DMs and comments are open 24/7. What do we need to do?”
Some breweries that have chosen to continue with the festival have expressed concern that withdrawing will do more harm than good. Athens, Georgia-based Creature Comforts Brewing sent out an internal statement relaying similar concerns, which was anonymously shared with @EmboldenActAdvance and posted on the group’s Instagram stories Thursday.
“As you may or may not be aware, over the years we have chosen at times not to participate in some festivals when there was a lot of industry pressure and desire to not do so,” the post said, referencing Creature Comforts’ previous withdrawal from the Wicked Weed Funkatorium in Asheville, North Carolina, and Beavertown’s London Craft Beer Festival, following deals struck between those breweries by Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken International, respectively. “Our experience from pulling out of those festivals is that the main ones impacted were the consumers who had already purchased tickets…
“We believe that the fastest way for us to make progress is to have dialogue and help each other change for the better,” the note continued. “For this reason, we have chosen to take a different approach this time than we did with previous festivals in hopes of a better result.”
Iron Hill Names Restaurant Industry Veteran Chris Westcott as New CEO
Wilmington, Delaware-based Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant has named former Rosa Mexicano Restaurants CEO Chris Westcott its new CEO.
Westcott spent six years at New York City-based Rosa Mexicano in various leadership roles, after nearly 20 years at Houston-based McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood & Steaks, according to a press release. He is a Culinary Institute of America graduate, who has held various operational roles within the restaurant industry, including running his own establishments.
In his new role, Westcott will lead Iron Hill’s continued expansion into new markets throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions, according to the release.
“[Chris’] culinary experience is impressive and compliments Iron Hill’s commitment to both traditional and innovative from scratch cooking,” Iron Hill’s co-founder, board chairman, and acting CEO Kevin Finn said in the release. “Culturally, I believe Chris brings the same values and commitments to our guests and our employees that I instilled at Iron Hill since the first restaurant opening in 1996.”
Iron Hill’s former CEO Kim Boerema was named president of Hard Rock Café operations in March, after three years with the brewery, according to his LinkedIn. Boerema helped oversee the opening of Iron Hill’s first large-scale production facility in Exton, Pennsylvania last December, which expanded the brewery’s product capabilities to 20,000 barrels.
The brewery operates 20 locations across Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Georgia, including four new locations that opened during the COVID-19 pandemic: the Exton Taphouse, as well as two locations in the greater Atlanta area and one in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
Breakthru Beverage Appoints New VP of Digital E-Commerce
Beverage alcohol wholesaler Breakthru Beverage Group has appointed Mike Boswell its new Vice President of digital e-commerce center of excellence.
Boswell previously worked as VP of corporate strategy, where he led the development of Breakthru’s multi-year strategy, including the development of its digital evolution strategy, according to a press release.
“Mike’s leadership and extensive experience in leveraging technology to drive strategic solutions has played a key role in developing many enterprise-wide efforts to advance Breakthru’s capabilities across our North American footprint,” Maggie Lapcewich, Breakthru’s executive VP and chief growth officer, said in a press release.
“He has worked closely with the commercial sales, SBD, national accounts, united and corporate functional leadership of HR, IT, finance and operations to build the roadmaps and critical milestones that are underway today, including our digital B2B/B2C strategy, data integration workstream, advancing analytics, and optimizing our corporate function structures and shared service model,” she continued.