Pabst president and general manager Matt Bruhn will depart the company on May 14, Pabst shared with wholesalers in an update provided to Brewbound.
“We are grateful to Matt for his passion and leadership over these years and wish him and his family the absolute best in all their future plans and endeavors,” the company wrote. “We will be working with Matt to ensure a very smooth transition and are confident that there will be no disruption to our work together.”
Bruhn’s forthcoming departure follows nearly four years at the company. He joined Pabst as chief marketing officer in November 2017 and was promoted to president and general manager in September 2018, following former CEO Simon Thorpe’s departure. Current CEO Eugene Kashper will take on more day-to-day responsibilities, including managing the company’s leadership team, while chief sales officer Brian Smith will remain wholesalers’ point of contact.
The announcement follows months of heightened activity for Pabst. Less than two months ago, a consortium of investors, including Pabst owner Blue Ribbon Partners, struck a deal to acquire 100% ownership of City Brewing, the largest beverage alcohol co-packer in the U.S. Pabst announced in November 2019 an agreement to transfer the majority of its production to City facilities by December 2024.
In November 2020, Pabst closed on a deal to acquire the former Molson Coors production brewery in Irwindale, California. As part of the acquisition of City by Blue Ribbon Holdings, Charlesbank Capital Partners, Oaktree Capital Management — which acquired TSG Consumer Partners’ stake in Pabst following the private equity firm’s divestment — and City management, the consortium will acquire that facility from Pabst.
City plans to resume production at the “Irwindale Brew Yard” in the third quarter of 2021. The company said the facility will be “the largest full-service, low-alcohol beverage contract production facility in the western United States” with a capacity of 55 million cases annually. The company plans to increase production to 110 million cases annually by 2024.
In addition to its flagship Pabst Blue Ribbon, the company’s portfolio includes lager-heavy regional heritage brands such as Lone Star, Rainier, National Bohemian, Heileman’s Old Style, Olympia and Stroh’s.
Under the Pabst brand, the company has attempted to break into the beer category’s above-premium segments to keep up with consumers’ desire for premiumization.
Pabst dabbles in flavored malt beverages with hard seltzer, hard coffee and hard tea brewed under the Pabst brand, and produces the Jack Daniel’s Country Cocktails FMB line under a licensing agreement with spirits giant Brown-Forman.
Pabst discontinued the Captain Pabst craft line it launched in coordination with the opening of the now-shuttered Captain Pabst Pilot House in December 2020. The brewpub’s closure marked the end of Pabst’s ties to its ancestral hometown of Milwaukee, where it was founded in 1844.
Pabst, the eighth-largest beer category vendor, increased dollar sales 4.5% in 2020 in off-premise retailers tracked by market research firm IRI. Those elevated off-premise sales came amid the shift in consumers’ beer buying behaviors as the COVID-19 pandemic forced closures and restrictions in the on-premise channel.
Year-to-date through April 18, off-premise dollar sales of Pabst’s portfolio have declined 6.5%, according to IRI. Those declines have accelerated (-9.6% for the 12-week period and -15.2% for the 4-week period ending April 18) as the company cycles the early months of the pandemic stock-up period.
Pabst posted modest dollar sales gains (+1.7% year-to-date through February 21, via IRI) before the calendar began to cycle the pandemic stock-up period, but those tough comps became apparent and year-to-date dollar sales declined 3.2% through March 21. For the four weeks that ended March 21, Pabst dollar sales were down 11.5%. A month prior, its four-week dollar sales through February 21 declined 1%.
With food and c-store dollar sales declines of 8.4% year-to-date, flagship Pabst Blue Ribbon is outpacing the overall portfolio’s declines.
Bruhn discussed the company’s lager-driven portfolio strategy during the 2018 Brewbound Live business conference.
“We’re an average American beer company that makes average American beer for average Americans who make average money,” he said. “Most Americans make $35,000-$40,000 a year, they don’t have more than $10 to pay for a 6-pack.
“They just want a lager, they want a decent beer to reflect on the day, to connect with their friends, to have barbecues, to socialize — that’s what we make,” he continued. “We don’t make bougie high-end and we don’t make luxury craft. We make average American beer and we’re honestly really proud of that fact.”
However, that philosophy evolved over the last year, “redefining” itself as “an enhanced drinks business, not a cheap beer company,” Bruhn told Brewbound in October 2020. “We don’t do beer. We’re making enhanced drinks.”