Ex Molson Coors CEO Joins Big Drop Brewing

And it’s significant that this big name talent chose to join a UK brewery which ONLY brews alcohol-free* beer.

Here’s the deal….

Mark Hunter, the former chief executive of American brewing giant Molson Coors, is helping an acclaimed low ABV ‘craft’ beer brand, Big Drop Brewing, take on the US.

The top tier executive, who left Molson Coors at the end of September 2019, has spent the last year investing in a number of small companies. Now free from his role at one of the world’s largest breweries, he appears to have developed a taste for low alcohol craft beer.

Hunter reached out to Big Drop co-Founder Rob Fink via LinkedIn after finding the low ABV beer specialist’s crowdfunding campaign online. And that initial contact grew into more conversations and eventually an “advisory role” at Big Drop.

But while Hunter has built  a strong network of retail and on-trade customers in the UK and Europe during his tenure at Molson Coors, Fink hopes the drinks entrepreneur will be able to steer the business in the right direction as it launches in the US and Australia this year.

“We’ve set up a great team in the UK and we have a sales director based in the Netherlands who helps manage our European distribution with a network of fantastic partners in each of our territories,” Fink told the Drinks Business, but added that Australia and the USA are “clearly different and more challenging.”

Big Drop was launched in October 2016 by the-then lawyer Rob Fink, along with his school-friend/band-mate, designer and entrepreneur, James Kindred. And along with renowned experimental brewer, Johnny Clayton (formerly of Wild Beer Co), they’ve perfected techniques to make alcohol-free craft beer without the need for artificial removal of alcohol. A result that doesn’t compromise taste and still delivers beer that is no more than 0.5% ABV.

Big Drop Brewing doesn’t just use barley…It uses barley, rye, wheat and oats to produce buzz-less beer that’s aggressively full-flavored. Big Drop offers a full range of no-alcohol offerings. They brew Lagers, Pale Ales, Stouts, and of course IPAs…They even craft Sours.

Hunter retired from his post just as Molson Coors had posted disappointing quarterly revenues, citing low demand for its portfolio of lagers and bad weather. Mass market beer producers such as Molson Coors and AB InBev have faced increased competition in the US from craft brewers in recent years.

 “Mark’s global experience in beer will be invaluable in helping to understand those territories better and enable us to work with the best people. We’re really excited about the benefits that his 30 years of experience in the beer industry will bring.

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* Most modern alcohol-free beers contain residual traces of alcohol. None of Big Drops products are more than 0.5% ABV