SCOTTISH sour beer producer Vault City has recruited two brewing industry heavyweights to help the brand become a household name.
Close on the heels of the Edinburgh-based firm’s move to a new brewery with the capacity to produce more than 10 million litres of beer per year, it has enlisted Luca Lorenzoni, previously a global director at Anheuser-Busch InBev, MD at Camden Town Brewery and CEO at Northern Monk, as its strategic advisor, and his long-time colleague Martin Monro as commercial director.
While working together at Northern Monk, the pair helped grow revenues from £3m to in the region of £18m, launching the brand into supermarkets and on-trade national retailers for the first time.
Monro 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 100s 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,” added Monro.
“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.”
Currently, more than a third of the sour beers consumed in the UK are made by Vault City, which passed £5m turnover this year, having been founded in a Dundee kitchen in 2018.
“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.
“Us remaining fully independent is a huge part of the pitch to them; we’re super agile and our team has the freedom to make our story happen, without being held back by opinions, process and bureaucracy. That’s incredibly freeing.
“I’m so excited for what the future will bring with them as part of our incredible team.”
Lorenzoni said: “Seeing the kind of innovation and new product development they are capable of, I believe Vault City can not only drive the sour beer segment, but tap into a whole new audience. There’s a tremendous opportunity to unlock by focusing on flavour, which is the number one purchase criteria for Gen Z.
“To many people, variations of lager or IPAs taste very similar, and it’s such a busy space. Craft beer is saturated, but flavour itself is a blue ocean; very few people other than Vault City are playing with flavour in a distinctive, interesting way. Long term, I believe Vault City will be considered a flavour brewery, not just a sour beer brewery.
“People lock themselves into an idea that beer is this or should be that, but Vault City thinks differently, that’s why this is so exciting. Steve and the team are committed to challenging the status quo, and that gets me fired up. I want to help them make their story happen.”
