Lion Beer Australia’s shake-up of its supply chain continues with the launch of a dedicated craft beer distribution arm – Malt Shovel.
The new division is named after its beloved Malt Shovel Brewers and will distribute brands including James Squire, Malt Shovel Brewers, Little Creatures, White Rabbit and Kosciuszko, Lion NZ brands Panhead and Emerson’s, plus regional brands such as Byron Bay Brewery and Eumundi Brewery.
Malt Shovel’s General Manager is Lion Marketing Director – Craft, Gordon Treanor (pictured above).
“Malt Shovel felt like the perfect name to talk to our history of craft brewing and where it all started for us,” Treanor told Brew News. “Chuck [Hahn] back in 1998 started the Malt Shovel Brewery. Our logo is the outline of the brewery and it talks to our home and heritage.”
Malt Shovel will have a dedicated team to call on smaller bars and cafes that Lion hasn’t previously reached effectively and will also service independent bottleshops.
Lion on the hunt for innovative ideas
The move comes after the recent launch of Lion Unleashed, a program seeking up to 12 teams of entrepreneurs for its first start-up accelerator program aimed at bringing innnovative customer engagement, supply chain certification, data analytics, environmental impact and health ideas to the company.
Lion CEO Stuart Irvine told the Australian Financial Review the company’s decision to launch the program was inspired by a recent trip by the company’s executive team to China.
“The thing that strikes you about China is that it’s gone mobile across its whole distribution system a lot quicker than the industry in Australia has,” he said.
“It was good to take a step outside your day-to-day thought patterns and we want this start-up program to help us do that too.”
Irvine added in a statement: “Innovation has been at the heart of Lion’s 177 year success and is critical for our long term, sustainable growth. Together with the R&D expertise of our parent company Kirin, we have a strong track record of evolving both our alcohol and dairy portfolios to meet the changing needs and tastes of consumers.
“But no one has a monopoly on great, disruptive ideas that can really challenge and grow our people and our business. Unleashed is an opportunity for us to collaborate with the best and brightest startups, who at the same time can benefit from Lion’s unique understanding of consumers across alcohol, dairy and juice, our deep manufacturing experience and potential partnership opportunities with our leading brands, including XXXX, Steinlager, Little Creatures, Dairy Farmers and Pura.”
Interested parties can apply at: unleashed.lionco.com
Tackling the ecommerce space
Last year, Lion launched its own e-commerce platform, MoCu, which stands for Modern Curations Gallery, as a vehicle to sell extremely limited edition beers such as White Rabbit RED and Little Creatures VHA – Double IPA, which were otherwise available in bottles only at the breweries.
The site offers curated collections of premium beer and wine, presented in a format that encourages discovery and exploration.
MoCu has worked closely with the Lion craft beer team to map out a pipeline of new products that will be exclusive to the website.
“As brewers, MoCU is a great platform to showcase our harder to find offerings and one-offs that we’ve been working on, making them readily available for everyone to purchase,” Malt Shovel head brewer Chris Sheehan told Brew News in November.
MoCU eCommerce director Sandy Park added: “Ultimately if this helps the beer category in terms of people’s appreciation, we can get more people trying new things, it’s just another way to realise growth. That’s probably one of the key goals for Lion.”
