Boston Beer Taps Philip Hodges as Chief Supply Chain Officer
The Boston Beer Company has a new supply chain officer. Phil Hodges will be taking on the role, replacing Quincy Troupe, who served as senior VP of supply chain until February 2022.
In the reshaped leadership role, Hodges will be managing the company’s end-to-end supply chain operations, including brewery management, procurement, customer service, engineering, safety, quality, and planning.
Previously serving as an advisor to The Boston Beer Company since May 2022, Hodges brings 30 years of senior operations experience across various CPG roles and will build on existing efforts he’s been involved in. This includes reducing freight and warehousing costs, improving forecasting and inventory management, implementing processes to become more reactive to changes in demand, and more.
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Prior to his consultative role, Hodges was EVP of group supply chain for Copenhagen-based brewing company Carlsberg. He was also previously group director and chief supply chain officer at SABMiller and SVP of integrated supply chain for Mondelēz International’s European segment. Earlier in his career, he spent over two decades across several senior operations roles with Kraft Foods Group up until 2011.
Hodges will be reporting directly to the company’s CEO, David Burwick.
"Phil has influenced our supply chain approach since he first started consulting with us last year," said Burwick in a statement, adding that the company’s supply chain team has been working to modernize processes via investments in equipment and operations.
"We're looking forward to the significant impact Phil will now make in his new leadership position as our CSCO as we seek to generate substantial gross margin expansion from our supply chain over the next few years," he added.
A Long-Haul Approach
The company’s supply chain modernization follows a three-pronged strategy, per Burwick in a recent call with investors.
First, the company is tackling procurement, looking to increase savings by reducing costs related to raw materials and packaging. To achieve this, The Boston Beer Company is reviewing its contracts with suppliers in order to better react to demand fluctuations.
Additionally, the company is taking a closer look at brewery performance, moving more volume to internal breweries and adjusting contracts with co-manufacturers to optimize its product mix. Lastly, The Boston Beer Company is looking to optimize its waste efforts and supply chain network.
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“We have initiatives to optimize our logistics, which will reduce freight and warehousing costs over time. Also…we’re currently implementing systems to improve our forecasting and inventory management, which we expect to reduce inventory obsolescence over the balance of the year,” said Burwick during the call.
While Boston Beer expects to see positive impacts in the second half of the year, it's cautioned the changes will take time to fully realize significant benefits. The company will be using cost savings resulting from these strategies to shift brand spend from a more traditional approach to expanding its digital and social media presence.
