THE GIST
On August 9, Mikkeller announced the departure of CEO Kenneth Madsen. He served in the role for almost two years. The change comes amongst broad shifts in the business’s priorities that will “focus less on expansion” and more on profitability, according to a press release from the brewing company.
As a global company that has long worked to enhance its reach across the world, a spokesperson for Mikkeller would not answer a question whether a change in how the company approaches expansion would lead to the closure of any of the 52 current Mikkeller breweries and restaurants, which are located in 18 countries around the world.
Instead, the spokesperson referred to a statement posted on the company’s website, which quotes from Mikkel Bjergsø, Mikkeller founder and creative director, in which he said that it is "a very challenging time for production companies — and especially in light of the current market situation — it is necessary for us to look at the whole business and ensure that it is sustainable."
Bjergsø went on to say the company would work to maintain its position in "focus markets," but didn't describe where those markets are located.
At least one aspect of the U.S. market can be quantified: Chain retail sales tracked by market research company IRI show that Mikkeller’s portfolio of beers is down -25% in the most recent 52-week sales period. Beer as a category was -2%. Year-to-date sales in 2022 for Mikkeller are a bit better, although on pace to be below last year’s tally in IRI-tracked stores and closer to 2020, when the company made about $782,000 in sales.
Company leadership did not make anyone available for a phone interview.
WHY IT MATTERS
Madsen had been CEO since October 2020. The Copenhagen-based global beer company says he will be replaced by a three-person executive committee composed of Bjergsø, Martin Connie Pinborg (CFO and director), and Ditte Lassen-Kahlke (general counsel and chair of the board).
This signals the company’s renewed confidence in Bjergsø, whose denial and defiance last year in response to former workers’ stories of sexual harassment, bullying, and harassment prompted Madsen to distance Mikkeller from its founder’s statements. In interviews with two Danish media outlets, Bjergsø claimed that activists were trying to ruin his business, and that issues of harassment at the brewery were not part of the company’s overall work culture. In October 2021, Madsen wrote in a statement that Bjergsø’s comments “did not convey the company's or Mikkel’s stance in full on this serious topic.” Bjergsø has been largely out of the spotlight since apologizing for his comments. Now, he is joined on the executive committee by:
Lassen-Kahlke, who has acted as general counsel for Mikkeller since March 2021
Pinborg, who was hired this spring and has been CFO since June 1. Prior to joining Mikkeller, Pinborg spent 11 years at advisory firm Deloitte Danmark, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, strategy, and valuation, according to his LinkedIn.
Madsen had been leading a reconciliation effort with former and current Mikkeller employees who experienced harassment and unsafe working conditions, a process that is ongoing. Workplace consultancy Hand & Heart is coordinating the plan, and its managing director Kate Bailey says her company will provide an update when the process is completed. (Hand & Heart previously published a 10-part podcast series about Mikkeller called Super Cool Toxic Workplace.)
This story will be updated as more information becomes available. Below is a timeline recapping recent years’ developments at Mikkeller:
April 2016: Mikkeller San Diego opens to the public.
2017: Per an email sent in Oct. 2021, Mikkeller HQ says it was “made aware of the culture issues related to the work environment at our brewery in San Diego.”
May 2018: Mikkeller’s former director of global supply chain conducts an online, anonymous survey of San Diego employees that finds serious problems with employee safety and well-being.
May or June 2018: The former director sends those survey results to Mikkeller COO Jacob Gram Alsing and company founder Mikkel Borg Bjergsø with a note: “Your number one issue is workplace culture.”
Summer and Fall 2018: The former director is given authority to fire five employees in San Diego; this person also assumes the role of interim general manager of Mikkeller San Diego.
Mid-2019: The earliest point at which Mikkeller says it implemented a formal HR process for reporting harassment, bullying, and safety complaints.
July 2021: Four former Mikkeller employees, of Mikkeller San Diego and Copenhagen-based brewpub Warpigs, speak to Good Beer Hunting. They allege Mikkeller created a workplace where gender-based bullying, harassment, retaliation, and indifference to quality control and employee safety protocols went unchecked.
October 10, 2021: Dozens of breweries begin to withdraw from the Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen (MBCC) beer festival in opposition to the brewery’s response to former employees.
October 13, 2021: Bjergsø sends an internal letter to Mikkeller employees to address the MBCC controversy. In that letter, he writes: “In 2017 we were made aware of the culture issues related to the work environment at our brewery in San Diego.”
October 16, 2021: Mikkeller wrote on Instagram that “We have issues in our places of work. We are sorry. We are responsible. We need change.” The company also admits in an email to Good Beer Hunting that “severe harassment and misogyny” had occurred at Mikkeller despite declining to address the allegations in July.
October 21 and 25, 2021: Mikkeller hosts two public meetings to address allegations against the company—to mixed results. Most former employees who spoke to GBH did not attend.
October 28, 2021: Bjergsø says, through a company spokesperson, that he “was not the point of contact for the brewery in San Diego and has no knowledge of the [employee engagement] survey.”
November 5, 2021: The first episodes of Super Cool Toxic Workplace, a 10-part podcast series about Mikkeller, are published by workplace consultancy Hand & Heart.
November 16, 2021: A Mikkeller spokesperson tells Good Beer Hunting that Bjergsø and Alsing, Mikkeller’s former COO, did actually know about the employee engagement survey in 2018 and that its findings indicated “a bad working environment.”
November 19, 2021: An international partnership (known as WarPigs) between Indiana-based 3 Floyds Brewing and Copenhagen-based Mikkeller dissolves when leaders from both beer companies resign from a collective board of directors.
December 2021: After investing $15.2 million into Mikkeller in 2020, New York-based private equity fund Orkila Capital LLC infuses another $6.1 million, increasing its ownership stake to a range that falls between one-third and almost one-half of the business.
January 13, 2022: Following nearly seven months of denial, backtracking, and obfuscation, Mikkeller announced a “reconciliation plan” to make amends with current and former employees who experienced sexual harassment, bullying, and unsafe working conditions at the company and its affiliated hospitality businesses. Mikkeller brought on workplace consultancy Hand & Heart to help orchestrate the program.
Words by Kate Bernot