Boston Beer Co. Hires New VP of Supply Chain

Boston Beer Company 970

Boston Beer Company has hired former Campbell’s Soup executive Quincy Troupe as its new vice president of supply chain, the beer maker announced last Friday.

In a filing, Boston Beer said Troupe will report to CEO Martin Roper and have primary responsibility for overseeing the company’s supply chain — including brewery management, engineering, safety, production quality, and scheduling.

Though new to beer, Troupe is no stranger to the complexities of production at large, multi-brand corporations like Boston Beer Co. He enters the segment with 19 years of operations management experience for packaged foods conglomerates Campbell Soup Company, Inc. and Mars, Inc.  

“Quincy’s experience in overseeing the supply chain for business units of respected food and beverage companies will be a great addition to the Company’s leadership team,” Roper said in a statement. “This is particularly important as our supply chain and the diversity of our offerings continue to expand and becomes more complex.”

Boston Beer has made a number of key leadership changes in recent months. In December, the company hired former Kraft Foods executive Frank Smalla as its new senior vice president of finance. Smalla will replace Boston Beer’s retiring CFO, William Ulrich, sometime in 2016. In August, Boston Beer also internally promoted corporate controller Matthew Murphy to the newly created role of chief accounting officer.

The executive shuffle comes during a critical time in the brewery’s 32-year history. Though it is the second largest player in a thriving craft industry and has diversified its portfolio to include hard soda, cider and alcoholic tea, the company is now competing alongside more than 4,100 small craft producers — a figure that has grown nearly 18 percent since last January.

According to market research firm IRI Worldwide, volume sales of Samuel Adams seasonal products declined 9.5 percent in 2015 at U.S. multi-outlet and convenience stores while dollar sales dropped 8.2 percent. Year end data for the same retail segments also pegged volume sales for flagship Boston Lager down 7.4 percent compared to 2014.

Troupe also joins the company at a time when its stock has tumbled to a 52-week low, dropping more than 45 percent since it closed at $323.99 on Jan. 22, 2015. Shares of SAM were trading around $171 as of press time.