Vault City Brewing has recruited two industry heavyweights as it prepares to move into bigger premises.
Luca Lorenzoni, a former global director at Anheuser-Busch InBev, managing director at Camden Town Brewery and chief executive at Northern Monk, has been hired by the sour beer specialist as a strategic advisor.
He is joined at Vault City by long-term colleague Martin Monro, who has been appointed commercial director. During their time at Northern Monk, the pair helped the brewery increase revenues to around £18m from £3m, and took the brand into supermarkets and on-trade national retailers for the first time.
Mr Monro was also part of the team which launched Swedish cider brand Rekorderlig in the UK.
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He said: “Like Northern Monk, Vault City has established itself as a leader within its space. The next challenge, and it’s one I’m very motivated by, is to grow the category and recruit more advocates.
“The growth so far has been tremendous – working with hundreds of independent bottle shops and bars to now being listed in major supermarkets at this stage is incredible – but there's still so much more we can do through export, on trade and retailers.
“Vault reminds me of the early Rekorderlig days; the consumers are super engaged, and the brand has a bit of magic. “The potential is huge to serve our current audience and also to recruit non-beer drinkers who appreciate cider, cocktails, wine and RTDs through accessible flavours found in our Radler and ice-tea ranges. Not many breweries have the opportunity to pull from as many different people as Vault City.”
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The hires come shortly after Vault City revealed plans to move to a new brewery at BioCampus, Scotland's first dedicated national bio-manufacturing campus located at the Midlothian Science Zone in Edinburgh.
“I believe Vault City can be the world’s biggest sour beer producer,” said co-founder Steven Smith-Hay.
“Martin and Luca can help take us to the next level. I watched the growth of brands like Northern Monk and Camden Town closely, and there’s so much we can learn from them. I’m very proud we’re able to recruit talent of their calibre.”
Vault City’s brews are exported to more than 20 countries around the world, stocked in more than 250 bars, and available in the off-trade Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose stores.
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