Drinkworks has announced that it has significantly expanded its team, hiring 28 people since the acquisition of five divested beer and cider brands from Asahi.
In January, Heineken acquired Strongbow, Little Green and Bonamy’s cider, as well as the Australian rights to Stella Artois and Beck’s. These would be distributed in Australia by Drinkworks as the Australian sales and marketing arm of DB Breweries Limited (DB), Heineken’s wholly-owned Australasian subsidiary.
Since then, 28 new hires have joined the Drinkworks team which collectively adds 150 years of industry experience to the business, a move that Drinkworks says reflects its serious growth intentions.
Judd Michel, General Manager of Drinkworks, said the expanded team increases the company’s expertise across the board.
“To support our significantly strengthened world class portfolio of premium brands and expand the company’s offering to customers, hires have been made across sales, marketing, supply chain, finance and the Drinkworks leadership team to manage distribution, volume, retail and on premise customers across the country,” he said.
“The increase in manpower across the field sales team in particular means we are expanding into South Australia and the Northern Territory, and now service all states and territories in Australia.”
Two new senior hires to note include David Segreto as National Sales Manager and Richard Knight as Senior Marketing Manager.
Segreto will lead customer engagement across field sales (on- and off-premise), grocery, independents and banner groups. Prior to the role, he has recorded almost 20 years of experience in the industry, working for such big names at Bacardi, Diageo and McWilliams.
Knight also has significant history in the FMCG and liquor industry over more than 15 years, having worked in beer marketing with Lion and managing brands such as XXXX, James Boag, Tooheys, West End and EMU.
The experience of Segreto, Knight and the range of other new hires will assist Drinkworks in managing and growing the presence of both the five new brands, as well as the existing international premium and craft portfolio that includes Tiger, Monteith’s, Sol, Orchard Thieves, Bintang and Kingfisher.
Header image L-R: new hires David Segreto and Richard Knight.