One month after selling a minority ownership stake to Molson Coors Beverage Company, beverage accelerator L.A. Libations has brought in a new slate of experienced hands to expand the company’s capabilities.
Speaking with BevNET this week, CEO Danny Stepper said L.A. Libations has hired five new team members in an effort to create departmental synergies and help the company “deliver on [its] commitments” to serve as the non-alcoholic brand building arm for Molson Coors.
The new hires include Adam Louras, VP of operations and brand creation; Jacob Timony, portfolio brand manager; Ashley Sheeran, as incubation program manager; Bret Johnson, VP customer & consumer marketing and Pierre Thermidor as lead territory manager, Northern California for the company’s merchandising subsidiary Relentless Trade Solutions. As well, Bonnie Shah has been promoted from director of business development to VP of business development.
“While a lot of what we’re dealing with today is the same we’ve always done, we’re continuing to build new capabilities and we’re very committed to making Molson Coors a force in non-alc,” Stepper told BevNET.
Prior to L.A. Libations, Louras most recently served as COO and chief formulator & director of R&D for Dirty Lemon parent company Iris Nova. He also previously served as co-founder, president and CEO of Koa Organic Beverages. According to Stepper, Louras will focus on creating new brands as L.A. Libations looks to expand its portfolio of original products under Molson Coors. The company has previously launched GLOE and Arriba Chelada.
“We’ve seen an evolution in our business over the last five years,” Stepper said. “When we started L.A. Libations, we were more focused on partnering with entrepreneurs — which we’ll continue to do — but we’ve really built the muscle of creating our own brands and Adam is going to head that up and help manage the operations going forward. He’s got deep experience building a brand from scratch himself in the past and the work he’s done at Dirty Lemon speaks for itself and he’s going to be a real asset to the team.”
As the company looks to launch new lines, Bret Johnson will be focused on improving the company’s consumer-facing marketing capabilities. Johnson comes to the company from Rockstar Energy, where he served as VP of sales and marketing. He previously served as VP of field marketing at Pabst Brewing Company.
Stepper said L.A. Libations had not previously focused on in-house marketing, instead opting to work with outside partners, but Johnson will work closely with both Louras and the company’s partner brands to develop new sampling and programming opportunities.
“We’ve proven we’re really good at getting things on the shelf, which is really important until you’re on the shelf — then it’s how do you get off the shelf,” Stepper said.
Jacoby Timony is a newcomer to the beverage industry and most recently served as account executive of business development for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. Stepper said he met Timony when Timony tried to sell him a suite of season tickets, impressing his soon-to-be boss with his sales prowess. In coming from outside the CPG industry, Stepper added that he believes Timony will bring a fresh perspective.
At L.A. Libations, Timony will work with the company’s portfolio of partner brands — including Space Shake, ARYA, Limitless and The Living Apothecary — to improve marketing and national sales.
Pierre Thermidor is a veteran of Mondelez and will join the team of Relentless Trade Solutions, a “spinoff” merchandising company founded earlier this year and helmed by L.A. Libations executives Wade Duke and Robert Macias.
According to Stepper, Relentless now services all of California and is preparing to expand into the entire West Coast and Southwest regions in 2020. The company has grown this year from four full-time employees at launch to 20. Thermidor will focus on the Northern California market.
Bonnie Shah, in her new role as a vice president, will increase her focus on L.A. Libations’ internal incubator program, which offers mentorship and guidance for early stage beverage brands for a six-month period. Speaking to BevNET, Shah said she developed the idea of the incubator with Stepper last year as a way of building up and testing smaller brands before committing to full partnerships.
According to Shah, brands that have since graduated from the incubator include Limitless, now a L.A. Libations portfolio brand, Positive Beverage and dandelion tea maker Lion. The program, she said, leverages L.A. Libations relationships with retailers such as Gelsons, Bristol Farms, Lazy Acres and Lassens to grow participants distribution for participating brands, while Relentless Trade Solutions is able to provide merchandising services. The company also partners with Amazon Launchpad and brings in representatives from the e-commerce retailer to meet with entrepreneurs and discuss building brands online.
Ashley Sheeran, who previously served as a territory sales manager at Limitless, has joined the incubator team as a program manager.
Shah added that Molson Coors has been “fascinated” with the program and L.A. Libations is currently exploring opportunities to further involve the beer giant, including coaching and early investment opportunities. Next year, she said the incubator aims to work with 20 brands and hold demo days at the end of each program.
“It’s nice that it’s not just a coaching program, but instead we’re building a revenue stream and an operating business model for these brands,” Shah said.