The West Coaster recently broke the news that Yuseff Cherney, Ballast Point’s COO/Head Brewer/Co-founding Distiller has left the Billion Dollar Brewery. This exit is on the heels of exits of Ballast’s President and CEO, Jim Buechler, its CCO, Earl Kight and general counsel, Julie Buechler. Stepping in to the CEO roll will be Constellation big-wig (and former President), Marty Birkel.
Nothing has been said about the reasons why this group of Ballast Point execs are leaving other than personalposts on FB pages. Though it does make you wonder what the plan is for Constellation Brand’s Ballast Point. When they bought Ballast last year for the headline-making sum of $1 Billion, they insisted that things wouldn’t change. They said that the same people who had been leading and making decisions for Ballast Point would continue to do so. Well, Constellation’s spokesperson, Michael McGrew pretty much said the same thing again this past week.
“Consistent with our approach when the acquisition was announced last December, we will continue to operate in the same manner, with the leadership team at Ballast Point continuing to run the day-to-day operations and making decisions the team feels are in the best interests of the company and our consumers,” McGrew wrote.
But is this just lip-service at this point? How many of the original people who helped build up Ballast Point to the valuable brand it is today will still be around in another 6 months? Another year?
Maybe they are leaving because they have better opportunities. Maybe they are leaving because they don’t like the direction the company is going (with the rapid expansion to get distribution to all 50 states). However, it does look fishy to have so many top Ballast people leaving, all in the same week.
Either way, to us, this an unsurprising development in the craft beer buy-out game. Ballast Point said this wouldn’t happen last year in a U-T San Diego article.
“White pledged. Constellation, he said, has guaranteed that this brewery will remain true to its roots. There will be no coast-to-coast ad campaigns similar to the ones touting Corona. No changes in the brewing team, no shift in management. ‘As important as that was for us, it was key for them,’ White said of Constellation. ‘That’s what they are investing in, they want to make sure it’s me and my team doing what we do best. It will be the same people making the same beer, with the same culture and approach.’”
Sure, Sure.
Anna Brigham
7/29/16