Whitney Stevenson announced the news Friday on LinkedIn, posting a photo of herself with JuneShine co-founders Greg Serraro and Forrest Dein, and writing: “Could not be more excited to join Greg, Forrest and the JuneShine Team! So many exciting things to come!”
Stevenson spent nearly 15 years at Boston Beer, mostly recently serving as senior division director, overseeing the company’s geographic sales team and off-premise national account teams for California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona and New Mexico, according to her LinkedIn page. She also spent more than two years at MillerCoors as an on-premise manager, and four years at Pepsi Bottling Group as a key account manager.
Stevenson replaces former CCO Ted Karnig, who left the company in January, according to his LinkedIn page. Karnig is now chief sales officer at Best Day Brewing, a California-based non-alcoholic beer maker.
Stevenson’s hiring comes as JuneShine transitions into a total beverage company, drawing inspiration from Stevenson’s former employer, with the goal of becoming “the Boston Beer of the Southwest,” Dein told Brewbound earlier this year.
“We don’t just want to chase trends, we want to build value over a long period of time,” Dein said.
“We really want to be the Angry Orchard of this category, where in 25 years people are like ‘Holy shit, hard kombucha is a huge category and JuneShine has 70% of it, how did that happen?’” he added. “And it’s because we just made consistently delicious quality products for 20 years. That’s how you build valuable brands and big categories. It’s rare that you see the White Claw, $2 billion growth in three years.”
JuneShine started as a hard kombucha company, but has since expanded its portfolio to include spirits-based ready-to-drink cocktails (RTD), as well as light lager brand Easy Rider, which launched in February.
In March, JuneShine announced plans to acquire fellow hard kombucha maker Flying Embers in an all-stock deal. At the time, JuneShine estimated the two companies would account for 63% of all hard kombucha sold in the U.S., with their combined portfolios exceeding 116,000 barrels.
The acquisition also added Flying Embers’ malt-based canned cocktails to JuneShine’s lineup, filling a gap in markets where spirits-based cocktails are more restricted, Dein previously told Brewbound.