Brooklyn Brewery President and co-founder Steve Hindy had one more bomb to drop on the final day of the Craft Brewers Conference: Hindy is selling his voting shares in Brooklyn Brewery.
“I am very happy,” Hindy said in an interview with Brewbound. “You can own a company and not really benefit financially, particularly a startup company because you are re-investing all the money you make.”
Hindy owns 50 percent of the voting shares in Brooklyn Brewery giving him the ability to appoint board members and make new hiring decisions. The other 50 percent is owned by the Ottaway family who have been investors in the company since its founding.
“It’s a great situation compared to the alternative of selling to AB-InBev, MillerCoors, Heinken or private equity,” Hindy said.
The current deal, which has yet to be finalized, will give the Ottaway family 100 percent of the voting shares. The Ottaway family includes David Ottaway and his two sons, Eric and Robin, who currently serve as the company’s GM and sales manager respectively.
So what does this mean for Hindy? Hindy said he will still retain his common stock and will remain the company president, continuing to be what he called the “face of the brewery.” Hindy also said it gives him more time to focus on the continuing development of the craft beer industry as a whole.
Hindy is a member of the board of directors at The Beer Institute and The Brewers Association and told Brewbound.com that he wants to spend more time on these craft beer projects.
“I can now help develop the role of the brewer,” he said.
In any event, it’s quite the announcement from a man who just a few days earlier was giving the keynote address in the general session, rallying a crowd of over 4500 to “wear the hat that belongs to the brewer.”
And make no mistake about it, Hindy definitely still wants to wear the hat, but perhaps it’s a different shape now.