Maui Brewing Company has appointed Scott Metzger as its next chief operating officer.
Metzger, who founded Freetail Brewing Company in San Antonio, most recently served as general manager at Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, Massachusetts. He joined the company in September 2019.
As COO of Maui Brewing, Metzger will be tasked with the brewery’s “overall high-level operations … including growing sales and market expansion, assisting in the implementation of the strategic vision of the company, and further building the MBC team while ensuring a safe, positive, and inclusive environment for the team.”
Metzger will remain GM of Wormtown until August 13. He’s expected to start at Maui by the end of August.
The connection between Metzger and Maui Brewing founder Garrett Marrero dates back to their time on the Brewers Association’s board of directors. Metzger served four years on the board of the national trade organization for small and independent U.S. breweries, and he was also appointed as founding chair of the BA’s Diversity Committee.
“I served with Scott on the BA board and was always impressed with his intelligence and approach to handling issues and facilitating discussions,” Marrero said in a press release. “His ability to think globally and truly consider the needs of many was impressive. I believe Scott is what we need in the role of COO here on Maui as we strengthen our foundation, which is our team, while we push to grow our brand ‘Ohana nationwide.”
As for Wormtown, managing partner David Fields has taken the reins as CEO. Fields told Brewbound that the company didn’t previously have a CEO and moving into the role gives the company a singular voice. He described the last couple of months as “troubling” and “surprising” as the allegations of workplace toxicity allegations came to light earlier in May as part of the movement in the beer industry to expose misconduct and misogyny.
“We thought that we had good best practices in place, and like anything, growth, often, is difficult,” Fields said. “So, under his [Scott’s] leadership, you know, and quite honestly the leadership of our brewery, and that’s that really is the entire team, I am very excited that that we took the right steps during this time, that we are putting the the right pieces in place that will make sure that we don’t find ourselves in a situation ever again where people don’t feel comfortable to bring their concerns forward. At the same time, Wormtown was and is and will continue to be a pretty special place, and we’re very, very, very excited to be able to maintain that portion of our culture but yet, make it a more welcoming environment for everyone.”
Metzger told Brewbound that he believes Wormtown has “put together a really great plan for its future” that addresses the workplace toxicity concerns. He also addressed the potential optics of his job move, but he stressed that his interest in the C-level post at Maui predated the accusations of culture issues at Wormtown and his exit shouldn’t be a reflection on the state of the Massachusetts craft brewery.
“There’s a couple of different ways people could read into this, the first being that I’m getting pushed out for something I did. That is not the case, and everyone here would attest to that,” he said. “The second way people can read into it is that I can’t tolerate it here, so I’m leaving. That is not the case either. The reality is this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it’s the only opportunity I would have left Wormtown for.”
Metzger added that he believes Wormtown is doing the necessary work to correct the issues of the past.
“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t difficult and didn’t cause pain to a lot of parties, and I’m not trying to dismiss the pain that any individual might have felt, or that our company may have felt,” he said. “But I really do think that we tackled the situation with the courage required to do the right thing. We did the right thing. And we’ve put a lot of great new infrastructure in place to ensure that the right thing happens going forward.”
Wormtown is in the process of hiring a successor general manager and has “some incredible candidates,” Fields said.
Wormtown announced Metzger’s pending departure to staff and its wholesaler partners today. In the announcement, Fields said Wormtown wishes Metzger and his family well, and he credited the GM for providing “a steady hand and critical leadership” during the pandemic.
Beyond exchanging winters in central Massachusetts for the beaches of Maui, Metzger said he was attracted to the opportunity to work on “a true universal lifestyle brand” with the potential to “transcend the boundaries of what we think about in terms of craft beer being something local, that’s really tied into just one community.”
“Maui is either everyone’s aspiration or everyone’s favorite place they’ve ever been,” he said. “So it has a lot of appeal to people everywhere, all over the world. So being able to tap into that and help be part of a true universal lifestyle brand is huge.”
Maui, founded in 2005, did not report production data to the BA, but is classified as a regional craft brewery (one producing between 15,000 and 6 million barrels of beer annually).