Summit Brewing Founder to Retire; Brandon Bland Named President and CEO

Summit Brewing founder and CEO Mark Stutrud will retire from the Minnesota craft brewery in March after 37 years.

Stutrud will stay connected to Summit – the largest craft brewery in Minnesota – as chairman of the board and a brand ambassador, according to a press release. Chief strategy officer Brandon Bland will take over the role of president and CEO upon Stutrud’s retirement.

“With the proliferation of breweries across the country today, it’s easy to forget how difficult it was to open a brewery in the United States nearly 40 years ago,” Summit board chair Bill Garber said in the release. “Mark was a true visionary with a commitment to producing a quality product that has never wavered. … He has left us with big shoes to fill, but he has also built an incredible leadership team and we were delighted to offer our chief strategy officer, Brandon Bland, this new role.”

Bland joined Summit’s sales team in 2017 and was named CSO in 2021. Prior to Summit, Bland held leadership positions with several CPG brands, including Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Red Bull.

Stutrud founded Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1986. The brewery has since grown to be the 26th largest Brewers Association-defined craft brewery in the U.S.

“Building this brewery has been quite a ride,” Stutrud said in the release. “Because we’re independently owned and operated, we’ve been able to make craft beer our way. For us, that has always meant never settling for just good enough.”

Summit produced approximately 94,000 barrels of beer in 2022, according to the release. The BA’s estimates for Summit’s 2022 production was 103,800 barrels of beer, a -12% decline year-over-year (YoY). At its peak, the brewery produced more than 127,000 barrels.

Last year, Summit moved its distribution business to A-B house Capitol Beverage Sales in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area following Breakthru Beverage’s acquisition of J.J. Taylor’s beer business in Minnesota.

In the last 52 weeks (ending August 12), Summit off-premise beer sales have declined -7.8% YoY, while volume (case sales) declined -15.7%, according to NIQ data shared by 3 Tier Beverages. Its core beer lineup has struggled in 52-week scans, with several brands in decline, including its top two offerings: Summit Extra Pale Ale (dollar sales -6.2%, volume -13.6%) and Summit Saga IPA (dollar sales -9.5%, volume -16.3%).

Stutrud joins a growing list of craft brewery names departing their leadership roles this year, including: