Ex-Lagunitas CEO Maria Stipp becomes CEO of Stone Brewing
USA | A familiar face: The former CEO of Heineken-owned craft brewer Lagunitas, Maria Stipp, joined Stone brewery on 14 September 2020 as its new CEO.
“Maria has all the qualities we were looking for in a CEO,” explained Steve Wagner, Stone Brewing co-founder and interim CEO. “She lives up to our values and has long admired our revolutionary spirit. Most importantly, she is someone co-founder Greg Koch and I are honoured and excited to work with. And the latter is a must, because we are sticking around!”
Ms Stipp will oversee Stone’s East and West Coast breweries, two Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens locations, seven taproom locations and distribution to all 50 states and more than 40 countries. She will also hold a seat on Stone’s Board of Directors.
Stone accused of bully tactics
The announcement was accompanied by a 90 sec video on YouTube, featuring the two founders and Ms Stipp. The most recent comments to the video were far from flattering. Nothing to do with Ms Stipp. More to do with Stone and its lawsuits. Commentators accused Stone of having turned from an underdog into a bully.
None objected to Stone filing a lawsuit against Molson Coors in February 2019, alleging the Big Brewer violated its trademark on the use of “Stone”. The lawsuit is expected to go on trial in October. What has provoked commentators’ ire, is that Stone has also publicly sparred with Sawstone, a small craft brewery in Morehead, Kentucky, this July over the “Stone” trademark; it did the same with Holystone Distilling in Murray, Utah, in August.
This led the website goodbeerhunting.com to argue that Stone seems to have lost its way amid lawsuits, closures and controversies.
A sinking feeling
Since filing the lawsuit against Molson Coors, Stone has sold its Berlin brewery and taproom to BrewDog (April 2019) less than three years after it opened at a reported cost of USD 29 million; it has closed a taproom in Shanghai (March 2020); it has laid off roughly 300 employees (April 2020), later giving 250 of them USD 1,000 worth of gift cards; last but not least Stone’s CEO Dominic Engels suddenly stepped down in August and had to be replaced quickly.
Adding to Stone’s woes is that sales in off-premise are also down. Per goodbeerhunting.com, Stone could see dollar sales in the off-premise slip by about 12 percent this year. This comes at a time when many of Stone’s peers are seeing sales grow in the off-premise.
The appointment of Ms Stipp could mean that she is to seek a buyer for Stone. Ms Stipp stepped down as CEO of Lagunitas in February after a five-year tenure, during which she guided Lagunitas through its acquisition by Heineken.
Will Stone be sold?
Three months into her tenure, Lagunitas sold a 50 percent stake to Heineken; it sold the remaining stake in May 2017. On Ms Stipp’s watch, Lagunitas’ global sales reportedly rose 74 percent, as Heineken boosted the brewery’s exports and began brewing its beers abroad (Brazil, Netherlands).
Insiders say that Stone has been shopping itself around for a while, trying to flog off pieces, but only managing to sell off its Berlin brewery.
Now Stone could be exploring options of cashing out, not least at the behest of its private equity partner VMG. In late 2015, VGM invested USD 90 million in Stone. By rule of thumb, private equity likes to exit after five years.
Facing economic headwinds and likely demands from its private-equity partners, the brewery is obviously relying on Ms Stipp to chart its course forward.
