PORTLAND, Maine – Maine Craft Distilling LLC, is pleased to announce that Joseph Swanson has been hired as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Joe succeeds owner and founder Luke Davidson in this role, and Luke will continue to provide creative leadership and operations support.
Joe is excited to build on the company’s current double-digit growth trends and expand the regional distribution footprint of both its bottled spirits and ready-to-drink canned cocktail offerings.
“Joe is really the ideal person to captain the next chapter of Maine Craft Distilling and grow our brands to new heights. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work alongside him moving forward,” says outgoing CEO Luke Davidson.
Maine Craft Distilling launched its successful line of ready-to-drink craft cocktails in 2018 and the brand continues to show powerful growth focused its core New England Region, where it is the third largest brand in both volume and revenue in the highly competitive grocery channel, currently growing 32% in revenue over last year according to recent Nielsen data.
In his role at Maine Craft Distilling, Joe will lead the commercial development of Maine Craft’s ready-to-drink cocktails, including the company’s flagship offering, Blueshine Lemonade, an all-natural 7% abv blend of Maine Craft’s Blueshine Liquor with sparkling lemonade. This brand is now the number one brand in dollars per store in New England grocery, and the third largest offering by volume in the category, growing at more than 55% year over year across the company’s full distribution footprint.
Blueshine Lemonade is available in slimline 12oz. cans packaged as 4-packs and 8-packs, and in variety packs with the company’s Cranberry Island Cocktail and Maine Mule Cocktail. This core variety pack offering is growing at 60% year over year and stands as the seventh largest variety pack offering by volume in New England grocery.
The company has recently launched a new line of 7% abv no-sugar-added Tasty Beverage offerings, available in variety packs and solid packs featuring unique flavor profiles designed to differentiate in the competitive ready-to-drink segment. The company expects to sell upwards of 120,000 cases of its canned cocktails over the course of the next twelve months, with a current distribution footprint that includes 12 states in the northeast region of the United States.
Previous to his new role at Maine Craft Distilling, Joe has been professionally involved in the beverage alcohol trade for 20 years. Working as a brewer at the Harpoon Brewery in Boston, Massachusetts, and Allagash Brewing Co. in Portland, Maine, Joe later worked as a distiller for more than a decade in Freeport, Maine producing Cold River Vodka and Gin. Joe worked as the National Sales and Marketing Director for Cold River before joining the Martignetti Companies of Taunton, Massachusetts in 2015 as an east coast regional sales manager for Martignetti’s national import team.
In 2017, he became Martignetti’s National Spirits Specialist, and then the National Brand Director for the importing division of Martignetti Companies, working with such brands as San Felice, Gordon & MacPhail, the Benromach Distillery, Mayalen Mezcal, Ron Centenario, Ron del Barrilito, and Del Professore Vermouths & Liqueurs. In that role, he led portfolio development, brand development, business planning, and go-to-market strategy.
In 2021, Joe founded his own consultancy, Symposium Projects, providing an international portfolio of clients with brand development, business planning, commercial direction, sales execution, and consumer engagement services to drive growth in the US market. He worked to launch and build brands including Happy Dad Hard Seltzer, Gordon & MacPhail, the Benromach Distillery, Cream of Kentucky Bourbon & Rye, Hardshore Gin, Rock Rose Gin, and Velvet Cap Irish Whiskey.
ABOUT MAINE CRAFT DISTILLING
Maine Craft Distilling was founded by Luke Davidson and Fred Farber in 2012 and now creates a variety of handcrafted spirits. The company’s flagship spirit offerings include Blueshine Liqueur, a 35% abv liqueur featuring wild Maine blueberries infused into malt spirit and sweetened with Maine maple syrup, as well as Fifty Stone Single Malt Whiskey, made from local barley, peated with local peat, fermented with wild yeast, and matured on site at the Portland distillery. The company also owns and operates the Maine Craft Distilling Public House at its Washington Avenue facility in Portland, hosting regular live music events as part of its premier visitor experience.
For More Information:
https://www.mainecraftdistilling.com