Wiseacre Brewing recently announced expansion into Florida, along with adding Wisconsin, Arizona, and Virginia this year, the Memphis-based production facility also announced the recent promotion of long-time employee Amanda Thompson to COO.
Thompson spoke with Brewer at the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville for an upcoming cover story feature and shared her pleasure in moving into the role, adding a role of gravity to the company headed by brothers Kellan and Davin Bartosch.
“They are the big picture to a lot of degree. I’m not as much on the big picture side,” Thompson said. “That’s a big transition for me stepping into a COO role was to try to think from the broader detail because I stay stuck in the details a lot of times.”
Kellan said he and his brother have been very “risk-tolerant” in building the company and adding Thompson helps in the maturity.
“We’ll just jump off a cliff and try to figure it out later,” he said with a laugh. “Amanda’s probably more aware of challenges maybe than we are. No one’s more deserving of the position she’s in, not only her great work ethic and value-added everywhere, but she’s a leader at our company, she’s fun to work with.”
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Thompson said she is good at asking all the questions that need to be asked, “to the point that I think I can drive people a little bit crazy, but it’s that counterbalance in the willingness to jump off the cliff.”
It can be challenging to work with brothers that run a business and Thompson has been around long enough, Kellan said, to cut through the brother code speak.
“She’s really found a way to engage with people and do the job well and have fun with us,” Kellan said. “We need someone like her. We have limited skill sets, and we have somebody here who’s great at a lot of things that we’re maybe not great at.”
Thompson began in the taproom as a way of returning to the workforce after the birth of her two children. In her more than seven years with the brewery, she has worked her way up from the taproom to administration, events, human resources, and operations.
One of Thompson’s first projects as COO will be working with staff to manage the production increases necessary to accommodate the brewery’s entry into the Florida market, including the populous communities of Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville, among others.
“In my time at Wiseacre, I’ve seen the industry evolve at each tier, but Tiny Bomb has anchored us in every wave of change and will continue to be the compass that guides us forward through whatever obstacles and opportunities lie ahead,” Thompson said in a release posted by the company on Tuesday. “We are just starting to package off of our four new 300 BBL fermenters and it couldn’t come at a better time — this recent equipment expansion is what’s making it possible for us to get our beer in the hands of our fans in Central and South Florida.
“Florida is definitely a competitive market, but our focus on an amazing Pilsner continues to be a strategy that resonates with our distributor partners. We are getting great enthusiasm from our distribution partner Progressive and we feel confident that it will trickle down to retailers and customers.”
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