CEOs You Should Know: Elton Knight CEO of Mahou USA

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
And welcome. This is iHeartRadio. CEOs you Should Know is
a part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities we serve.
We are proud to offer another edition of CEOs You
Should Know. CEOs You Should Know is both a podcast
and a broadcast feature designed to profile the many dynamic
businesses that drive our regional economy. These CEOs we profiled

(00:24):
in several episodes, which you can check out online in
the podcast section at woodradio dot com. They all represent small, large, local,
and even international firms because they all contribute to West
Michigan's diverse and thriving business community. And today's guest is
no exception. Please to welcome Elton andres Knight, CEO of

(00:46):
MAO USA, and the connection here in Grand Rapids is
of course Founders Brewing, which is a part of the
MAO brands of beers, and he is in studio with us.
I'm so excited about this because you had me at
Beer outon so welcome to the program.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thank you, Phil, Thank you for having me on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
You've been in Grand Rapids a little over almost two
and a half years, that's right. Yeah, yeah, we're going
to talk about that because I want to know, and
I know where listeners would like to know where you're from.
I can tell by your accent you are not born
in America, or at least not as far as I know.

(01:26):
But we are here to talk about your leadership at
Mile USA. You took over as CEO of Founder Brewer
Founder Is Brewing here in February one, twenty twenty two,
which seems like forever ago, about two and a half years.
Your previous leadership was CEO of Avery Brewing in Beautiful Boulder, Colorado.

(01:48):
You've been here now two and a half years. We
won't get into any comparisons, but have you have you
become Grand Rapids normal, almost.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Almost, So there's been a pretty busy two and a
half years.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure. Well, we are glad to
have you here. Where are you from originally?

Speaker 3 (02:03):
So, I was born in England, but I've been a
bit of a nomad most of my life was brought
up in South America. My mom is English and my
dad is Spanish from Barcelona. I kind of position myself
more as Spanish and English.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Okay, So you were born in what city in England?

Speaker 3 (02:21):
So close to Staffordshire, so in the north mid of England.
I still have family out there, but most of my
family has actually moved to Madrid.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
To Madrid, Spain.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's not a bad place to spend a lifetime. So
tell me a little bit about your background. Specifically you
are in the beer business. What did you do when
you first got out of school and you said I
need to go make a living. Where did you start? Wow?

Speaker 3 (02:51):
That was a while ago. Yeah, I didn't really really
know what I wanted to do. I was passionate about business,
but I didn't really know what that meant. My dad
was a sales guy for most of his life and
that's the reason why we moved around a lot. I
wanted to be a bit like that, a bit like him,
trying to figure out my own way. But I did

(03:11):
a whole bunch of stuff, from being a waiter to
working in a travel agency. But my first real proper
job was in an English company, spirits company called Diaga,
which is a pretty well known company brands like Smirnoff, Journey,
Wolfshure and I started in marketing, so I think that was,

(03:32):
you know, mid nineteen ninety nine, so a while ago.
And started in Spain in the Madrid office and It
was an inflection point obviously in my life, you know,
my first proper job in marketing in a company that
specializes in marketing. I worked there for thirteen years, and
I had the opportunity and privilege to work in several

(03:54):
different countries and regions. Because it's a huge multinational. There
are marketing headquarters are based in Amsterdam, so I lived
there for a few years. I worked in the UK,
in England, I worked in Ireland, and obviously most of
the time in Spain, and definitely a great school for marketing,
for learning how to build brands and understanding the consumer,

(04:15):
and that kind of set me on my way. Now,
thirteen years after working there and working in as I said,
in different countries and brands, kind of felt like I
needed to change, especially because it was a high travel job.
And I got an opportunity to work in orange Ena SHWEPS,
which is a completely different company with a completely different culture,

(04:36):
and the Spanish office that I worked in had just
been bought by a Japanese company, a conglomerate, and I
spent a couple of years there, but very quickly realized
that I enjoyed alcohol in the positive sense of the word,
and I had the opportunity because my ex boss moved
to mal the company I'm in right now and gave

(04:57):
me an opportunity to join them, and it's a it's
a fantastic company, which I'd love to talk about and
give you a bit more detail, but family owned brewery,
seven generations, over one hundred and twenty five years, one
hundred percent family owned, which in the brewing industry, and
for a brewery of that size, it's very unique in
the world. There's very few breweries that had that kind

(05:20):
of scale as independence, and that's allowed them to I think,
position themselves as something unique and different in the market.
Over four thousand employees, we distributed and brew in seventy
different countries and that's where I started off, so it
was a change. There's obviously a lot of shared skills
that you can apply or reapply from my previous experience

(05:44):
in beer and worked in the international department, So I
started basically working there in what we call the export business,
which is taking Spanish beer and taking that abroad. A
big emphasis from a geographical perspective was Europe, with the
UK being one of the biggest markets for US outside
of Spain, and it was I guess a great stepping

(06:05):
stone to get more operational, evolve a little bit more
from the conventional marketing to more trade marketing and getting
closer to the to the customer and the market. And
eventually our parent company now shareholders, decided to look at
opportunities in the US, and the US as you know,
being a huge beer fan is the biggest, most dynamic,

(06:27):
profitable innovative. I think tip of the spear market for
beer and for drinks in general. And they were looking
at opportunities here for a while. And obviously Craft in
his heyday was making tons of noise, not just in
the US but globally, and all eyes were looking at
the US market and what was going on there. So

(06:47):
over time and they began to invest here in the
US and acquired Avery Brewing in Colorado. As you mentioned before,
I lived there for a few years at my first
stint here in the US, and then after I.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Got to stop you there, was that a tough move
Spain to go not at all.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Colorado is definitely attractive the US is in general, and
career wise, it's a no brainer. The opportunity to evolve
from marketing and I had some limited sales experience, but
it was a it's a game changer from a career
perspective and a development perspective, and a Knavery's a jewel.
It's it's a great brewery, great beer in a great location.

(07:31):
It's a heavy craft state, so over four hundred breweries,
which is respected and renowned for the quality of their beers.
And then just Colorado is awesome. I love skiing, so
that's one of the best places in the world. I
love the outdoors. It's a very active lifestyle. It was
very easy for me to land and land in there
with my wife and daughter, who must have been just

(07:53):
ten or eleven at that time when we moved over.
But I moved in twenty nineteen, end of twenty nineteen,
just when school started. They came over and as you know,
shortly after that, COVID hit. So it was strange to
start in a new country, in a new role, in
essence a different company, although it's part of our our matrix,

(08:15):
our parent company. But then start working from home now
and that presented a whole bunch of challenges in an
industry that I think has come out very different to
how it came in to COVID. For a whole bunch
of reasons, which I'm sure we can discuss, but great
experience there was there for three years, and then I
got the opportunity to come here, and I dove headfirst

(08:37):
to come to Founders, which is a national brand, fifty
states top tembrewery in the US, twenty five years of legacy,
kind of inheriting the also work that Mike Stevens and
Dave Angers, did you know when they began this journey
just over twenty five years ago.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, that was great.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
And you know, Elton, I'm sorry, the two companies are
not very dissimilar. Founders and Avery very similar beers obviously,
you know, locally founded both in Kraft Beer rich states,
like you said, Colorado over four hundred craft breweries. I

(09:18):
don't know how many we have here in Michigan.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Michigan is pretty big too.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
It seems like we have four thousand here in Michigan.
But great brands. I was, I was lurking on the website.
You've got Avery's got tweak bourbon barrel aged coffee stout,
little Rascal session, Belgian style wet. I was really just
my mouth was watering. Look at these electric sunshine fruit

(09:43):
target Ale Noumadic Dreamer. This. My favorite beer name under
the Avery beer brands was Patrol Dog Pale. Love that
And then you got to tell me, I'm sure you've
had the Reverend Belgian style quadruple Ale. Interesting.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, I mean there's to your question. I think both
both breweries have a vast portfolio and they're.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Actually indeed, that's what made them attractive.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
I think in terms of acquisitions and investments for our
parent company. Know when you know, when the owners of
our parent company are brewers themselves and have been for generations,
they're not looking for, you know, an investment that is
economically driven. They're looking to continue the legacy that they've
been building over generations, you know. And when they spoke

(10:29):
to Adam Avery down at Boulder and and you know,
and sold the portfolio and the just a level of
innovation and I think disruptiveness that they brought to the
industry whilst you know, maintaining the high standards. That was
definitely part of the decisions why they were you know,
made sense to invest and partner with Adam and in

(10:50):
the case of founders with Mike and Dave the same.
I mean, these are people who are passionate about beer
that cut no expense in the brewing development tribution to
ensure the highest qualities and standards and and in beer,
consistency of liquid is key. You know, we have one
bad beer, it's difficult to recuperate after that. And you know,

(11:10):
I think our threshold up both breweries is extremely high.
And then the innovation that's part of the DNA, I
would say to be fair of craft in itself. You know,
craft is innovative and and and breakthrough and all those
new flavors and styles and has been something that has
helped build the category and make it attractive and maybe

(11:31):
make it even in terms of share of voice, bigger
than what it is in terms of share of market.
You know, right, very attractive and and and very innovative,
and and I think is the challenge, you know, as
we talked briefly about, you know, coming out of COVID
and how the landscape has changed, is how do you
reframe that in a market that was before you used
to enjoy a lot of tailwind and exponential growth, is

(11:55):
now facing some some some some challenges which are opportunities obviously,
but require certain degree of change and adaptation to this
new landscape.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
We're speaking, by the way, with Elton Knight. He is
the CEO of Mao USA and you can learn more
at m a hou dot com. By the way, I
was doing a little research earlier, and what I love
about your company mal USA is you actually had a campaign,

(12:29):
a social campaign called say Mao where you were talking
about how cats knew how to order beer which and
it's brilliant in fact, in the podcast notes for the program,
and if you're hearing us on the radio, check the
podcast version, because I'm going to put the link to
that wonderful video of say Mao. Now you're a marketing guy.

(12:51):
Was that your brilliant idea?

Speaker 3 (12:52):
I'm not going to take the credit for it, although
i'd like it's really great. It was somebody that was
back in the day when you know, now with an age,
it's difficult to pronounce yes, even for Spanish speaking people.
So it's a name that comes from Germany actually, so
that the age you don't actually pronounce. And there's a
backstory to it. So people that live in Madrid are

(13:14):
known as cats because they live at night. Nightlife is
a big part of the Spanish culture and in particular
in particular Madrid, so the madrilineers are known for that,
and then we thought it would be just a great
gimmick to use the meow of a cat as a
way to be playful and help consumers understand how to

(13:34):
pronounce the brand and improve the brand call at the
point of sale. But yeah, it was. It was a
fun campaign that we launched. Now, it was quite a
few years ago, actually, I think four or five.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Easily.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
I was quite amused. I'm a cad guy and a
beer guy, so it was a perfect marriage, which real
quickly it was curious, you're a marketing guy. I love marketing.
Was it tough to learn about beer? You need you
needed in all about your products? Or were you beer
guy who was just good at marketing?

Speaker 3 (14:06):
I'd probably say I'm a marketeer at heart. Even now
in my current role, I really try not to be
perceived internally as just the market here. I'm sure our
marketing colleagues would appreciate that. Yeah, but no, it's about
the consumer. No, in essence is about the consumer. And
I think at this point, this inflection point of the category,
you know what we need to recruit a new generation

(14:28):
and re engage our existing consumers. You know, putting the
consumer at the center and basing it on you know,
competing insights about the consumer is all the more relevant.
And that doesn't mean it needs to come at the
expense of innovation or at the expense of the product itself.
Those are the strong pillars that we have built the

(14:48):
brands on and will continue to but we need to
become more consumer centric, and especially in terms of bringing
a new generation of consumers into craft beer, which we're
passionate about and that's part of our big strategic push
for the next few years.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's this next generation.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, that's a great point.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Tastes change, absolutely, they are again analyptics of of consumers change,
the needs and motivations change, the consumption occasions change, and
the competition changes too. You know, there's tons of other
categories that are eating away at craft that are being yeah,

(15:28):
that are that are being maybe more effective in recruiting
new consumers. So all of that I think changes the
playing field in a positive way because all it does
is up the game and keeps us on our toes
and and it kind of pushes us to to continue
pushing the envelope as we see in England, which is
all around you know, being ruthless on innovation, being ruthless
on really compelling consumer insights, marrying our brewing team with

(15:53):
our marketing team so that they can co create propositions
that are super relevant for consumers, and and and a
try for those who are today not thinking about drinking
craft beer.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, you said something Elton before we started recording this episode,
which I thought was really important. I want to go
back here. We're talking about how much the craft beer
industry has changed just in the last five years or so.
Could it just unpack that a little bit for our listeners.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
I mean, obviously I'm standing on the shoulders of Mike,
Dave and Adam. You know, these are the guys that
kind of built these companies and when I speak to
them to try and learn from, you know, the twenty
five or thirty year plus experience. Definitely, when the market
is an expansion, it's you know, you've got tailwind and

(16:43):
there's organic growth coming. It's one thing I think, since
the pandemic and all the inflationary pressure we suffered in
you know, towards the end of twenty one beginning first
half of twenty two, the whole value chain I think
in craft beer has changed. You know, craft beer has
become definitely pinched, if you will, in terms of the

(17:06):
economics behind it. But if you look at it through
the consumer perspective, I think there's a nine thousand plus
breweries today. Our core consumer is aging. New consumers, as
I mentioned before, are looking at different propositions outside craft
and all of that, when you mix it up, creates
a very different landscape to that you know, five or
ten years ago. And again there's still common denominators that

(17:28):
we need to continue to focus on which were true
then and are still true today.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
And as I mentioned, the quality of.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
The product, the importance of DNA and that being part
of our sorry of innovation, and that being part of
our DNA you know, those are those are aspects of it.
But you know, with ever more competition from both within
the category and outside the category, we're seeing that it's
you know, it's a tougher market landscape. I'm still optimistic

(17:54):
and excited about where we're going to take it. But
I think us as leaders in in the category, both
of founders and avery, it's up to us to help
reshape what this future looks like. And I think that's
an exciting journey for us for the next five eight years.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
You've used the word innovation a lot, and I really
appreciate that. But I think a lot of this as
you said, about changing taste different generations of beer drinkers,
or certainly with all the competition that's out there. But
I will tell you, Elton, there's a lot to be
said for sitting in a great tap room like your
taproom down to that is a wonderful social experience. It's

(18:33):
a wonderful gathering place. And I think you're already addressing that.
As far as innovation. You're creating more non alcoholic and
low alcoholic brands because younger drinkers, at least what I'm reading,
appreciate having those options. Not just people who don't want
to have alcohol because of a challenge with it, but
people just appreciate the non alcoholic beer options and they're

(18:57):
really great now compared to what used to be twenty
years ago.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah. Yeah, So just a couple of points there. I think.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Evidently the tap room, as you mentioned before, both the
one that we have in Boulder and the one here
in town in Grand Rapids.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
For me, there are embassies.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yes, your opportunity with a captive audience to share the
best expression of your brand.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
No, and that's the way we're focusing on it.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
In fact, we've just finished an important renovation in our
type room here in Grand Rapids, which has the objective
of upping the experience and the hospitality experience for our guests.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Second is, you.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Know, we've improved our food, but we've also put more
emphasis on the innovation of our liquids. And again not
at the expense of our ongoing line of beer. We're
beginning to expand into different different segments now. And non
alcohol in Europe is a is a more mature segment
between ten fifteen percent depending on some of the markets

(19:51):
in Europe, and it coexists with alcoholic beer. And I'm
a firm believer that that's a trend that's going to continue.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
We're going to see more of that here in the US.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
And I think it's you know, as long as a
liquid is good, and that's to your point, I think
that's the Achilles heel.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
If you don't have a good liquid, it's never going
to grow.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
We're we're actually putting some important investments in the next
year here at our brewery and in Grand Rapids to
be able to to produce the highest standard non alcoholic
beer and other types of liquids, so like cocktails and
other types of drinks. So yeah, I think that's it's
an important point into you and to your earlier point.
It's around you know, being responsive to the ever changing

(20:36):
consumer trends that we see in especially amongst the younger,
newer generation of drinkers that are entering the market.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
I absolutely love your description as tap rooms as embassies.
I think that's spot on. Elton Knight is with us
CEO of MAO USA. You can learn more in line
at m A h o U dot com. As you
heard Elton say earlier that that h is silent and
a company with amazing history one hundred and thirty four years,

(21:06):
a global brand and right here now is an owner
of Founders Brewing in Grand Rapids continuing a great legacy.
What if you speak about the culture at MAO USA,
what's important to you, what's important to telling your team
members about what your vision of what you want that

(21:28):
company culture to be?

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Absolutely good. That's a good question.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
It's one that the leadership team of myself spent a
lot of time on and because of all the changing
external factors. It's even more important not to forget all
the good things that the company has in terms of culture,
its heritage, and its success, you know, putting that in

(21:51):
value whilst also acknowledging that because of this changing landscape,
we're going to have to be more proactive and brave
and inventive to challenge the status call and challenge the.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Way we used to do things now and that unless it's.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
Not communicated clearly and consistently, it creates I wouldn't say confusion,
but it's like, hey, we're changing a lot of things,
and the truth of it is we need to build
on the ingredients that are broad us here, which is people, innovation,
the quality in the community. But as I mentioned before,
being brave and being inventive on this new approach that

(22:29):
we need going forward.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
So for me, it's all about over.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Communicating the context of what's going on both within and
outside the brewery and trying to get as much participation
from our team to co create this new path of
where we want to go going forward. So I think
that's a very different way of how it was done
back in the day because we had a set path

(22:54):
and right now we're still figuring out what the future is.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Going to bring.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
You've been talking about all aspects of marketing and putting
out new beers and making sure you're changing with the times.
Founders is a new offering, Devil Root. It's an important
product in your line. Talk about that if you would,
How it's important for Founders and the maw USA brands
if you will.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, So, I want us to be able to work
in parallel both in reinforcing our existing footprint and craft beer,
because I do believe we have headroom and space for
us to grow. That's our core, that's what we're known for.
That's where we feel I would say comfortable and confident
that we're able to continue to grow, which, by the way,

(23:40):
we have been doing since the last sixteen months consecutively
in market share, and I'm confident We've got both the path,
the team, the skill set to do that now and
the other big pieces around. I think we need to
diversify our business. And the reason why I think that's
important it's because I think new consumers, new trends and

(24:01):
new categories, and the skill set that broad Founders to
where it is today can trickle over into these new categories.
Non alcoholic beer still requires a lot of the same
ingredients and recipes abstractly speaking, and so do cocktails. And
I think cocktails is a great example of us reapplying

(24:22):
that knowledge and skill set to a completely different category.
So obviously that you require slightly different skill set production
process to be able to do that successfully, but there's
more common denominators in that innovation that might meet the
eye initially. So we're putting our toes into these different
areas in different categories learning and experimenting. But I see

(24:43):
that by twenty thirty, twenty twenty seven, when we think
about our strap plan and where we want to be
in five eight years time, these new categories will represent
an important part of our portfolio and offering going forward,
but never at the expense of our core business. It's
incremental to craft, which is what we're knowing for and

(25:04):
who we are.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
I think a lot of people listening just heard you
say that here in West Michigan or wherever they're listening
to this conversation and are happy to know that all
day IPA is not going away, and you know your porter.
And for my taste, Dirty Bastard, which I love KBS,
so many great brands and brands that truly are endeared

(25:29):
to so many people here in Grand Rapids in West Michigan.
I mean, let's face it, Elton, this is a city.
It was Beer City USA for years, apparently so many
years that they stopped the competition. But it is important
to you to be here in Beer City, USA, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (25:44):
For Sure?

Speaker 3 (25:45):
It's important to me. It's important to MAW our parent company,
but it's especially important to founders and it's type community
of employees and fan following. I mean, the brewer is
here at staying here. We're investing a lot, as I
mentioned before, in terms of expanding our production capabilities, investing
more into our tap room, which I mentioned before, we
just renovated, which.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
By the way, is beautiful. Having been there since the
renovation beautiful. I had a wonderful customer experience just two
days ago, and I must rave about the October Fest
on the radio. I'm just saying it was fantastic, wonderful.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
I mean, we've put a lot of effort into it
and we continue to do so. So all of this
is all about reinforcing our footprint here. Michigan's super important
for us. It's over twenty percent of our sales. It's
a core market we over index in terms of spend
versus evidently or other states where we focus on. And
when I talked to the team, it's all about a
must win, a must win business area for us. So

(26:41):
in fact, you know, we're upping our game in terms
of partnerships, in terms of innovation specific for the state
with our new Michigan Pisner made specifically just for Michigan,
distributed exclusively here in state, and even big big ticket sponsorships,
some of which we've already had for many years, even
some new ones which are coming out in the next

(27:02):
few weeks, like the University of Michigan Athletics, which we're
proud to sponsor and is something new.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Which we're about to kick off.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
In fact, I think this is the first time we've
talked about it publicly, if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
So well, there you just did. Congratulations. That's very exciting.
Real quickly before I run out of time here, is
there anything I didn't give you a chance to talk
about that you'd just like to share with our listeners?

Speaker 3 (27:26):
No, I mean, I think the big thing for me
is that I think it's super important for us to
be respectful and acknowledge, you know, everything that's brought this
industry to where it is today when we face some
turbulence and some headwind and we're all trying different things.
For me, the big pieces all around really learning from

(27:46):
our history and learning from what brought us to where
we are today. And the reason why is it's not
about changing that, it's about reinterpreting that and finding what
aspects of that we can take with us on this
on this next stage going forward. So as we look
at to your you know, as I mentioned before, different
categories and segments and innovations are outside our existing space.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
This never comes at.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
The expense of who we are, what we're knowing for
on what our core business is, and it's really important,
I think, to keep that front of mind when we
talk about where we want to take this company or
influence the industry going forward.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Well said, and fortunate to have your leadership where you're
driving at home every day. Congratulations, Welcome to Grand Rapids.
It's my first time meeting you in person. It's been
a real honor. Anytime I can talk about beer on
the radio or podcasting, it's always a good thing. Thank you. Albon.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Thank you, Phil for having me appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
He's been our guest on this edition of Iheartradios CEOs
you Should Know. We want to thank you for tuning in.
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