Ten months after ending its joint venture relationship with AB InBev (inside.beer, 14.1.2022), cannabis company Tilray Brands Inc. has acquired New York brewer Montauk Brewing Company to expand its US alcohol division. Montauk is the #1 craft brewer in Metro New York and has a distribution of its products across over 6,400 points of distribution, including top national retailers such as Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Stop & Shop, King Kullen, Walmart, 7-Eleven, Costco, BJ’s, and Speedway.
Montauk Brewing joins Tilray’s “growing US beverage-alcohol segment”, which already includes SweetWater Brewing Company, the 10th largest U.S. craft brewer with distribution across more than 40 states, the Alpine and Green Flash Southern California brands, and its bourbon and spirits brand, Breckenridge Distillery.
Two years ago, Sweetwater became part of Tilray, when Tilray acquired Aphria, another leading cannabis companies from Canada, to create the world’s largest global cannabis company. (inside.beer, 16.12.2020)
Upon federal legalization of cannabis in the US, Tilray plans to take full advantage of its strategic infrastructure, operations and brands across beer, spirits, and snack-food categories to parlay into THC-based products and further expand its commercial opportunities.
To fully optimize the value and strength of its U.S. craft beer portfolio, Tilray also announced today that it has appointed veteran beer and beverage industry executive and sales professional Ty Gilmore as President of Tilray’s U.S. beer business, a newly created position.
Gilmore joins Tilray from Glazer’s Beer and Beverage, which is according to its own statement “one of the most successful sales and marketing organizations in the wholesale beverage alcohol distribution industry.” Here he had served since 2020 as executive vice president, overseeing sales, marketing and operations across 11 distributors in the south. Prior to that, he spent the majority of his nearly three-decade career at Diageo, in positions of increasing seniority including seven years leading national accounts.
Irwin D. Simon, Chairman and CEO of Tilray, said, "Tilray Brands continues to strengthen our U.S. footprint and operations through investments in and growing our portfolio of leading lifestyle CPG brands that resonate powerfully with consumers. Montauk Brewing is an iconic brand with leading market share and distribution in the northeast. Tilray Brands intends to leverage SweetWater’s existing nationwide infrastructure and Montauk Brewing’s northeast influence to significantly expand our distribution network and drive profitable growth in our beverage-alcohol segment. This distribution network is part of Tilray’s strategy to leverage our growing portfolio of U.S. CPG brands and ultimately to launch THC-based product adjacencies upon federal legalization in the U.S.”
Mr. Simon continued, “We are excited to welcome Montauk Brewing’s founders Vaughan Cutillo and Eric Moss, as well as Terry Hopper, Montauk Brewing’s General Manager, to the Tilray Brands family and I look forward to working closely with Ty Gilmore to maximize the performance of our enormously powerful craft and lifestyle beverage brand portfolio.”
