Dennis Peek, the CEO of Heineken-owned Lagunitas Brewing Company, will end his term leading the craft brewery at the end of 2024, the company announced Thursday.
Peek ascended to the top job at the Petaluma, California-headquartered brewery in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of the on-premise channel and upended the craft beer industry.
In the next nearly five years, Peek guided Lagunitas “through a significant period of evolution, driving innovation, revitalizing the company’s commercial strategy, and solidifying its position as a leader in the IPA category and the No. 1 IPA draft in the U.S.,” the company wrote in a press release.
“Leading the Lagunitas Brewing Company for the last five years has been an honor,” Peek said in the release. “This is truly a special company and brand with ‘come as you are’ Lagunators, strong retail and distributor partners, and, of course, our loyal Lagunitas consumers worldwide, all of who ‘have a seat at our bar.’ I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve accomplished together, and I’m excited for Lagunitas’ next chapter.”
Heineken Panama chief marketing officer Bernardo Spielmann will succeed Peek in January 2025. Spielmann joined the company in 2005 as a regional marketing coordinator for Heineken Latin America. He has held leadership positions in several Heineken business units throughout the U.S., South America and Europe, according to his LinkedIn profile.
During Peek’s tenure, Lagunitas shed nearly one-fifth of its volume, with output declining from 950,000 barrels of beer in 2020 to 765,000 in 2023, according to data from the Brewers Association’s (BA) New Brewer magazine.
In 2018, the year after Heineken completed its acquisition of Lagunitas, the brewery’s output topped 1 million barrels for the first time, at 1,044,450 barrels, according to BA data. It peaked in 2019 at 1,072,500 barrels, and has not crossed the 1 million-barrel mark since.
For the first 10 months of 2024, Lagunitas recorded declines in off-premise dollar sales (-6.3%) and volume (-9.9%) through November 3 at retailers tracked by market research firm Circana. In the latest four-week period (L4W), those trends have completely reversed and Lagunitas, the No. 16 beer category vendor in Circana-tracked multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience stores, is now outpacing the category in volume gains (+1.4%, compared to the category’s -0.1%).
Although dollar sales and volume are still negative, Lagunitas’ two largest brands in Circana-tracked off-premise channels have also reversed course. Lagunitas IPA had declined -8.1% in dollars and -11.8% in volume year-to-date (YTD) through November 3. Those losses decelerated to -2.7% in dollar sales and -3.5% in volume in the L4W. Lagunitas A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ went from -10.3% in dollars and -12.8% YTD to -4.3% in dollars and +0.6% in the L4W.
Under Peek’s leadership, Lagunitas built a strong non-alcoholic (NA) portfolio that includes the Hoppy Refresher sparking hop water brand family and non-alcoholic IPNA, which the company said was the first NA IPA from a major brewer.