After a 32-year career that began in customer service and ended as CEO, Bob Pease is leaving his spot at the Brewers Association in 2025. From the official statement: "After careful consideration, I believe it is time to help this great association transition to new leadership and for me to move on to new endeavors,” said Biden, errr, Pease."
Pease had a number of highlights since his appointment to CEO in 2014, notably being a key player in getting the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act to come to fruition in 2020. Craft breweries producing fewer than 2,000,000 barrels annually pay $3.50 per barrel in federal excise tax on the first 60,000 barrels produced in a year. For perspective, breweries producing over 2,000,000 barrels annually pay $16 per barrel for the first six million barrels, $18 per barrel for every one after. Score one for the little guys!
Pease leaves the BA at a time when craft beer production dropped 5% in 2023, though market share climbed to 13.3%. There's no denying that ready to drink cocktails, seltzers, and NA beers, not to mention the saturation of breweries in individual markets, have eaten into brewery sales. Also, beer consumption per capita continues to decline, though I continue to personally reach new highs.
The BA has hired Kittleman and Associates, a Chicago-based CEO headhunter firm, to search for a replacement for Pease.
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