Josh Landan, the co-founder of San Diego’s Saint Archer Brewing, has departed the company less than 18 months after selling it to MillerCoors.
In an email sent to MillerCoors employees and obtained by Brewbound, Scott Whitley, the president of Tenth and Blake, MillerCoors’ craft and import division, said Landan resigned to “spend more time on his latest venture, Villager Goods.”
“Josh is a visionary entrepreneur who will continue to do great things,” Whitley wrote in the email, adding that he was “confident” the team wouldn’t “miss a beat” under the direction of three key Tenth and Blake executives: Brad Nadal, the vice president of sales and marketing; Kyle Farson, director of finance and Kent Kreutzer, the senior director of operations.
Landan, along with former Saint Archer vice president Jeff Hansson, who quietly departed the organization in December, launched Villager Goods — a line of food and beverage products backed by many of the same action sports figures who initially funded Saint Archer — in July.
That company’s first product is a pasteurized and not-from-concentrate organic coconut water line that comes in three flavors — original, pineapple and chocolate.
“MillerCoors has been an awesome partner, but as an entrepreneur, my heart is in developing brands from the ground up and I kept finding myself thinking more about Villager Goods,” Landan said via a statement. “I am forever proud of building Saint Archer and know the company will continue to have great success under MillerCoors because we have a passionate group of employees who make great beers.”
A search for Landan’s replacement is already underway, Whitley wrote.
In an interview with Brewbound, conducted in San Diego last month, Landan recounted selling his brewery to MillerCoors and said his contract with the company spanned “multiple years.”
“That was one of the attractive things,” he said of the opportunity stay with the MillerCoors long-term. “They said, ‘we want you to stay forever. Can you stay forever? Can we sign you to a 40-year employment contract?’ I’m like, ‘Well, why don’t we just see how things go?'”
Landan, along with action sports stars such as Paul Rodriguez and Mikey Taylor, founded Saint Archer in April, 2013. The company grew rapidly, scaling to about 35,000 barrels in 2015, when it was purchased by MillerCoors that September.