Founders Brewing Company is rolling into its new three-year business cycle with upgrades to its facilities, plans to invest in its core brands and efforts to build future offerings in and outside of traditional beer.
Mahou is investing around $3 million to upgrade its Grand Rapids, Michigan-based brewery, adding a pasteurizer, a de-alcoholizer, a reverse osmosis filter and canning capabilities that will allow modern can formats, including a robot that configures mixed packs at scale, Mahou USA CEO Elton Andres told Brewbound.
“You’re going to see a whole bunch of new stuff towards the end of this year that speaks to non-alcoholic (NA), speaks to canned cocktails, nice narrow cans and stuff like that,” he added.
The investment is part of Andres’ vision for 50% of Founders’ EBITDA to come from outside of craft beer by 2030.
“We still are going to be a craft brewer, but we’re looking at it as craft beyond beer,” Andres explained. “That doesn’t mean turning our back on beer, because there’s tons of headroom for us to still grow. We’re not even 3% of the market.
“We’re always going to have great IPAs, and we’re famous for our barrel-aged [beers], and we’ll continue to do that for sure.”
Andres is now three-and-a-half years into guiding the Madrid, Spain-headquartered brewer’s U.S. operations, which includes Founders, Boulder, Colorado-based Avery Brewing and Mahou’s import division.
Mahou’s U.S. portfolio produced 437,000 barrels of beer in 2024 (-4% year-over-year), ranking it as the 15th largest overall U.S. brewery, according to the Brewers Association (BA). Founders accounted for 400,000 of those barrels (-2% YoY), with Avery making up 37,000 barrels (-17% YoY).
Mahou is the 19th largest beer category vendor in Circana-tracked off-premise retailers year-to-date (YTD) through June 15, with more than $47 million in dollar sales (-4.6% YTD).
Although Founders may be admittedly “a little late” to some of the segments, such as NA beer, the company is entering those spaces with a more focused innovation strategy, Andres shared.
Andres described the creation of Mortal Bloom hazy IPA as “retro engineered,” starting with the exploration of consumer and distributor needs, the right price-pack configuration and the appropriate beer style before providing the brewing team with a narrow brief to develop “a solution.”
Part of that approach to new product development is engaging key distributors early on, with the company providing samples of trail runs of new products and “taking them on the journey,” Andres said. That includes early creative of brand assets and designs.
“That’s a very different way than how we used to do it, and Mortal Bloom for me is the best example,” Andres said. “I use that every time I speak to the team here, in terms of validating that this new formula is one that can deliver breakthrough, incremental innovation.
“Most of our growth has come through this brand, thanks to the super high rate-of-sale per point of distribution, which is a super important measure for chains.”
Andres recalled taking over the U.S. operations in 2022, when Founders was releasing around 25 new brands annually. Now, the company is rolling out around a dozen new offerings, but “they’re better thought through.”
“They’re more aligned, they’re better resourced, they’re better supported,” he explained.
Mortal Bloom and its Year Two offshoots (8% ABV Imperial Thorn and a variety pack 12-pack), MI P1lsner, All Day Shandy, KBS Iced Latte and the Devil Spiked line of 10% ABV flavored malt beverages (FMBs) are all part of the company’s strategy to more evenly distribute the weight of a brewery that has relied heavily on the All Day IPA franchise, which accounts for nearly 60% of Founders’ total volume, Andres shared. Both Mortal Bloom and Devil Spiked are in the midst of new campaigns spanning digital media, connected TV, YouTube, TikTok, Meta, digital displays and more.
The company launched single-flavor can 6-packs of Devil Spiked Ginger Beer with Lime and Hard Lemonade, as well as a variety 8-pack with two pack exclusives (Fruit Punch and Blood Orange Soda) in March. The FMBs were released not as a “Founders product,” but from Mahou USA. Andres explained that doing so outside of the Founders brand requires “more focus and energy” due to the lack of association “but the benefit is you can have a more broader appeal” beyond being considered a craft offering.
MI P1lsner was an effort to better connect with consumers in Founders’ home state. The beer is brewed with Michigan hops, packaged in maize and blue and is part of a sponsorship with the University of Michigan. The beer is proof Mahou USA “can do things like the big boys do,” Andres said.
“Seeing our product available in the stadium … that had a huge uplift on our sales,” he said. “It’s great storytelling to open distribution and to have a more brand presence in that area, Ann Arbor in particular, but in Michigan in general.”
As for Founders’ foray into NA, Andres expects the first offerings to hit the market during Dry January 2026. He does believe there’s an opportunity to both play in the NA beer space with a Founders-branded offering, as well as something outside of the brand with an opportunity to be “a disruptive proposition.”
Andres acknowledged that not every new product launch will be a success, and the company is going into this phase with a mindset of experimenting in categories and accepting some will fail.
“Everything we launch is not going to work,” he said. “We know that, but we’re factoring that in. You have a little bit more headspace to be able to play around and trying things, which, by the way, is what Mike [Stevens] and Dave [Engbers] and Adam Avery did when craft started.”
More news from Mahou USA:
Contract Brewing For Garage Beer: Mahou is filling some of Founders’ nearly 1.3 million barrel capacity for around 40,000 barrels of contract brewing capacity, Andres said. Among Founders’ clients is Kelce-brothers-backed Garage Beer and Michigan’s Cheboygan Brewing Company.
Andres said he views contract brewing as a “midterm play,” with the company’s focus on growing its own brand. However, co-packing for other brewers has also been a learning experience for the company.
Mahou USA Refreshes Avery Packaging, Launches First Beyond Beer Offering: Mahou in the process of refreshing Avery’s packaging. New designs for White Rascal Belgian-style white ale launched in September, Avery IPA in November, Ellie’s Brown in January, Electric Sunshine fruited tart ale in March and Patrol Dog pale ale in June. New product launches include Highliner hazy IPA (March), Brightpeak IPA (March), Beach Buffalo lager with lime (March to July) and Cold Front winter lager (November through December).
The company also released NaughTea, a 6% ABV hard tea with passionfruit, Avery’s first beyond beer offering, in 6-packs and on draft.
Mahou Now Has 100% Ownership of Founders: Mahou’s acquisition of the remaining 10% stake in Founders took founders Stevens and Engbers off the cap table completely. The Spanish brewer took a 90% stake in the Michigan craft brewery in 2019, following its 2014 deal for a 30% stake in the business.