Milwaukee Brewing Co. Hires David Hock as CEO
Industry veteran most recently worked at distributor Beechwood Sales and Service.
Milwaukee Brewing’s MKE IPA beer. Image from Milwaukee Brewing Co.
Milwaukee has a new beer baron.
Beer industry veteran David Hock will become President and CEO of Milwaukee Brewing Company on June 1st. Hock will make the jump to Milwaukee Brewing Company from his role as Vice President at the brewery’s distributor Beechwood Sales & Service.
“I have known Dave since my first meeting at Beechwood eight years ago,” said Milwaukee Brewing chairman Jim Hughes in a statement. “He is a talented executive that knows all aspects of the craft beer business and the markets that we play in. This is a significant hire and inflection point for our brewery.”
Hock has worked at Beechwood in Milwaukee since 1988, having worked in beer distribution in various roles before that. He was named vice president of sales and marketing at Beechwood in 1991.
The company opened its 58,000-square-foot 9th Street Brewery in a redeveloped warehouse in The Brewery complex last fall. Described as a “reverse mullet” by McCabe at the groundbreaking, the building offers visitors a party in the front – Glass + Griddle restaurant and the brewery’s taproom – with business in the back in the form of office space and a large production brewery. The brewery, restaurant and office space operate cooperatively owing to interlocking investors in each entity.
The 9th Street Brewery had an announced capacity of 30,000 barrels annually at its 2017 groundbreaking. The company at the time reported it was near capacity at its 2nd Street Brewery, having reported production of 12,000 barrels to the state in the year prior.
Hock sees lots of potential. “The new brewery equipment and packaging technology will take the quality of beer to the next level,” said Hock in a statement.
Urban Milwaukee reported on the company’s CEO search on April 18th. “This hiring is the next step in our Company’s strategic plan to achieve long-term success and growth,” said a company representative in April.
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