But it does make you think about what you're going to do." And last year, I dealt with my old friend cancer again. "But there comes a time that you have to decide what you're going to do. "I've been CEO of the company for 38 years.
Money lio free#
"I first incorporated the company when I was 25 in 1983," Bell, 63, told the Free Press, referring to what was originally The Kalamazoo Brewing Company, Inc., a homebrewing supply store that began selling its own beer two years later. He announced his retirement at the company's annual all-employee event and said he plans to stay active in the Kalamazoo community. While the leadership team at Bell's will not change and neither will day-to-day operations at its Comstock, Michigan-based facility and Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Eccentric Café and Shop, the craft brewing titan will move forward without Bell, the pioneer of craft beer in Michigan and as influential of a figure as any in what has blossomed into one of America's richest beer states, with more than 400 operating breweries. ►'Mariah Menu': Mariah Carey and McDonald's present 12 days of free food for Christmas ►Veterans Day: Veterans can get free food at IHOP, Denny's, Wendy's, Applebee's and more.
The move will ultimately combine Bell's, the 16th-largest overall brewer in America by sales volume in 2020, and New Belgium, the 11th-largest, into a "new American craft beer leader," though both will retain their brands and beers. Lion also owns Colorado's New Belgium Brewing among its portfolio of international craft beer brands. And with that, a changing of the guard is about to take place at Michigan's largest and oldest independent craft brewer.īell – who founded Bell's in 1985, brewing its first beers in a 15-gallon soup kettle and later inventing several hallmark beers such as the Two Hearted Ale and the Oberon Ale – announced he is selling his company to Australasian beer company Lion, a subsidiary of Japanese beverage conglomerate Kirin, for an undisclosed amount in the coming months.