After being nearly one year without an CEO, CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective “has selected industry veteran Tony Short as its CEO. At the helm of the collective, Tony will accelerate the stellar momentum of the industry’s eighth-largest and fastest growing craft brewery and lead the collective into its next phase of growth,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Short brings to CANarchy more than 30 years of executive management experience at both the supplier and distributor tiers. In 1986, Short joined (then) Anheuser-Busch, where he spent 24 years formulating and executing wholesaler strategy, honing distributor relationships, and gaining invaluable beer industry knowledge, eventually rising to the position of vice president of business and wholesaler development. He recently served as president of Major Eagle Inc., operator of one of Florida’s largest beer distributors,” the statement reads.
In May 2018, David Pillsbury exited the company after about six months on the job, because he was offered his “dream job in the golfing industry and decided to follow his passion back into that field,” the company said at that time (inside.beer, 24.5.2018). To fill the vacuum, Canarchy promoted chief operating officer Matt Fraser to the role of president but the position as CEO remained vacant.The group reportedly did not seek a new CEO but seized the opportunity due to his existing relationships with members of Canarchy’s board.
Founded in 2015 as Oskar Blues Brewing Holding, the group “of like-minded brewers” was renamed CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective in November 2017 to reflect better the unique properties of its breweries. (inside.beer, 29.11.2017). The portfolio of craft breweries, partially funded by Boston private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners, includes Oskar Blues Brewery, Perrin Brewing Company, Cigar City Brewing, Squatters Craft Beer, Wasatch Brewery, Deep Ellum Brewing Company and Three Weavers Brewing Company. CANarchy was ranked No. 8 on the BA’s list of the 2018 Top 50 U.S. Craft Brewers as ranked by sales volume. The CANarchy platform brewed over 421,000 barrels in 2018, reaching all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., parts of 17 countries spanning five continents.
In the first quarter of 2019, CANarchy is seeing strong momentum, defying the craft beer industry’s current sluggish trends. The collective’s promising start in 2019 makes it the fastest growing craft brewery among the Top 50 Craft Breweries in YTD IRI retail scan data for the first three months of the year, growing at 31.0%.
