More than three years after taking a majority stake in Michigan’s Founders Brewing Company, Spanish brewer Mahou San Miguel is formally integrating Founders, Avery Brewing and Mahou Imports into a new platform, Mahou USA.
Mahou shared the news Tuesday. The company took majority ownership of Founders in August 2019, upping its stake to 90% after previously acquiring 30% of the craft brewery in 2014. Also in 2019, Mahou teamed with Founders to acquire a 40% stake in Boulder, Colorado’s Avery Brewing, which Mahou already owned 30% of following a 2018 deal.
Mahou called the move “a landmark change” for the company, “and a completion of the business transition to parent company Mahou Group, which began in 2014.”
Starting January 12, the three brewing companies will fall under one governance model as Mahou USA, while remaining a division of parent company Mahou.
Elton Andres Knight, who took over as Founders’ CEO in February 2022 and has guided Avery in the same role since 2019, will lead Mahou USA as CEO.
“Combining Founders and Avery with Mahou Imports into Mahou USA will enable us to compete on another level within the marketplace, which will bring a refreshing change as we move through 2023 and beyond,” Knight said in a press release.
Mahou managing director Alberto Rodriguez-Toquero added that linking the three companies will create “a singular mission, vision and strategy.”
“We are grateful to have this process brought to completion, so we can transition our focus back to growth in our competitive, rapidly evolving industry,” he added.
A spokesperson told Brewbound that the new structure “will allow for a broader footprint and sales distribution model, while respecting the individual identity of each company and brand.”
As part of the move, Mahou USA will restructure its sales force, transitioning from six regions to nine and adding to its team. Anthony Giardina, who was hired as chief sales officer in September 2022, will steer that process.
In addition to craft offerings from Founders and Avery, Mahou USA’s portfolio will include “many options from the Madrid brewery, which were previously unavailable in many parts of the U.S.”
For now, sales of Mahou’s imported beers will be concentrated on the East Coast, a spokesperson said. Although Mahou beers will continue to be produced in Spain and imported to the U.S., the spokesperson said “we are exploring options for local production moving forward.”
For Avery, the expansion could lead to an expanded footprint “where and when it makes sense,” however, a national rollout is not under consideration, the spokesperson wrote. Any geographic expansion would be “based on opportunity and partnerships with our distributors.”
The creation of Mahou USA is not expected to lead to any changes in the three brands’ route to market, the spokesperson added.
“Internally there are better ways for us to forecast, produce and better serve the needs of our distributors and customers,” she wrote. “Likewise, we believe there is an opportunity for us to streamline some of the relationships with our suppliers, which is a process we started a couple of years ago.”
The overall shift in structure will also not affect the ownership of Founders. The Michigan brewery’s co-founders, Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers, each remain 5% stakeholders in the business.
Founders and Avery will continue to fall outside of the Brewers Association’s (BA) definition as a small and independent craft brewery, even with the governance change, as Mahou’s production exceeds the 6 million barrel mark.
Overall, Mahou USA is one of the 10 largest craft brewing companies in the U.S. In 2021, production at Mahou’s U.S. craft breweries, Founders (540,000 barrels) and Avery (45,575 barrels), collectively declined -7%, to 595,575 barrels, according to the BA.
In 2022, off-premise dollar sales of Founders’ top-selling offering, All Day IPA, declined -10.5%, to nearly $60.6 million, and case sales fell -13.8% year-to-date through November 27 in multi-outlet and convenience stores tracked by market research firm IRI.
Through late November, the Founders brand family was the 18th best-selling brand family in IRI tracked channels, with dollar sales of more than $99.9 million (-14.2% year-over-year). Case sales for the brand family declined -16.7%, according to the firm.
Founders All Day IPA was the ninth best-selling craft brand in food stores, the tenth best-selling craft brand in convenience stores and the eleventh best-selling craft brand overall through the first 11 months of 2022, IRI reported.