A former spirits executive will be the next president and CEO of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.
The Chico, California-headquartered craft brewery announced that Pryce Greenow, who most recently served as Beam Suntory’s president, international and global sales excellence officer from November 2017 to February 2023, will take the helm, effective February 26.
Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman had served as interim CEO following the announcement of Jeff White’s retirement last June. White had served as CEO since 2019 and was only the company’s second CEO in its 40-year history, succeeding Grossman.
Grossman will return to the role of founder, owner and chairman of the board.
“We believe this experience will support our goal to expand into new spaces and opportunities while continuing to grow our beer business,” Grossman said in a statement shared with Brewbound. “We are thrilled to welcome Pryce to the Sierra Nevada team and look forward to building a bright future together.”
Greenow brings nearly two decades of beverage industry experience to Sierra Nevada.
Sierra Nevada tapping a spirits executive to lead Sierra Nevada into its next phase echoes the move New Belgium’s Kim Jordan made in July 2017 when the Fort Collins, Colorado-headquartered craft brewery hired Steve Fechheimer, the former chief strategy officer at Beam Suntory, as its CEO.
Greenow’s appointment comes also as Sierra Nevada prepares to open its Can Do Innovation Center, a Chico, California facility focused on beyond beer and non-alcoholic (NA) innovation.
Sierra Nevada ranked as the third largest craft brewery by volume in the U.S. in 2022, according to the Brewers Association. The company’s output declined -4%, to more than 1.062 million barrels of beer. Sierra held a 4.38% share of the craft beer segment that year.
The craft brewery added more than $15 million in dollar sales in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels in 2023, a +4.4% increase year-over-year (YoY), to more than $357 million, according to the market research firm. Sierra Nevada’s volume (case sales) were relatively flat (-0.1% YoY).