Molson Coors U.S. president of sales and distributor operations Kevin Doyle will retire on December 31 after nearly 40 years with the company.
Chief customer officer Brian Feiro will backfill Doyle’s position after training with him for the next several months, Molson Coors announced today.
“Brian knows this business. There’s no better person to lead this sales organization than him,” Doyle said of his successor in a Molson Coors blog post. “He’s an amazing talent, and he has all of the relevant background. He’s a guy who was on a truck. He was in the field. He understands distributors and customers and knows how to run a big business.”
Feiro credited Doyle with his success in the company after spending nearly two decades as his mentee.
“I’ve worked for Kevin since 2004, and I owe him everything for my career,” Feiro said. “He gave me the opportunity to do things I’d never thought I’d do.”
Doyle held Feiro’s role before being promoted in July 2015. He joined the company in 1981 as a merchandiser at Crescent Crown Distributing, which Miller Brewing owned at the time. Doyle went on to serve in “virtually every sales role with Miller Brewing Company, SAB Miller, MillerCoors and Molson Coors,” the company wrote.
“Kevin has never forgotten where he came from, and he has always cared deeply about the people on his team,” CEO Gavin Hattersley told the Molson Coors blog. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Kevin over the past 20 years, it’s this: He’s a good man who has become a friend to countless people in our business and across our industry.”
During his time at Molson Coors, Doyle oversaw several key product launches, including Miller Genuine Draft in 1986 and Simply Spiked this year, and developed the company’s chain sales team. He also “pioneered its industry-leading category management and sales analytics programs and helped lead the integration of Miller and Coors upon the formation of the MillerCoors joint-venture in 2008,” the company wrote.
“This is the best team I’ve ever worked with,” Doyle said. “I’ve got a lot of personal friendships inside Molson Coors and among our partners. We’ve been through hell and high water together, and that will bond you for the rest of your life.”
Feiro joined then-Miller Brewing 20 years ago as a sales manager in his home state of Minnesota. Like Doyle, he also spent time in the middle tier at the beginning of his beer industry career, helping to load trucks at a northern Minnesota Miller distributor.
Various Molson Coors sales jobs took Feiro to Wisconsin, Ohio, North Carolina, Arkansas and Texas before he returned to the company’s Chicago hub to take the role of chief customer officer in March 2021.
Feiro’s goal for his new job as sales chief is to firm up the brewer’s relationships with its distributor partners.
“My intention is to engage a ton with our network,” he said. “I’m ready to listen, I’m open to new ways of thinking, and I’m interested in doing whatever it takes to advance the state of our relationship.”
Dollar sales of the Molson Coors portfolio have increased +1.8% in the four weeks ending August 7, compared to the same period last year, according to market research firm IRI. Molson Coors, the country’s second largest beer manufacturer, has increased dollar share 0.06% in the same period.
Year-to-date through August 7, Molson Coors dollar sales have declined -1.7%, to $4.64 billion, at off-premise retailers tracked by IRI.