Movers & shakers: Summit Brewing chief sales officer Mike Bamonti

Industry veteran Mike Bamonti brings extensive experience selling Summit Brewing Company brews as a distribution company executive to his new role as Summit's chief sales officer.

Bamonti has joined Summit's executive team after 19 years at J.J. Taylor Minnesota, serving for the past 12 years as president and general manager of the state's largest beer distributor.

"I've always been a big fan and a big advocate of (Summit founder) Mark Stutrud, as Mark has always been a big advocate of the beer industry," Bamonti said. "It couldn't have been a better opportunity."

As a distributor, Bamonti said, his focus was on how Summit and other breweries could add value to his business. With Summit, his answer would include what he said was Summit's 30 years of producing high-quality beers, maintained through a multimillion-dollar quality assurance and quality control lab, and its track record of innovation, citing last year's introduction of its Hopvale Organic Ale as but one example.

Bamonti's 30 years of distribution experience include working in his native Chicago and in St. Louis, where he spent five years selling Miller Brewing Co. products in the hometown of Budweiser.

"It was a very humbling experience," said Bamonti, who has a business degree from Bethel University. "Moving a boulder uphill."

At Summit, Bamonti's responsibilities include promoting sales growth and territory strength in the 14 states where Summit beers are available.

Q: Has the craft beer explosion surprised you?

A: You could see it coming, but then all of a sudden it accelerated. At some point there's got to be a saturation point. There are a lot of newcomers and people investing millions of dollars. I wish them all the best of luck. I always look forward. I try to figure out what we can do to be the best.

Q: What's different about working on the supplier side?

A: With Summit it's first and foremost working closely with our distributor partners to make sure they have all the tools they need to sell our products and to work with the retailers to make sure that we're educating them on the value that Summit brings in terms of quality, reputation and community involvement.

Q: What appealed to you about the opportunity to join Summit?

A: The thing I noticed over 19 years was Mark's leadership, his ability to provide an autonomous environment so people can do their jobs and explore. Everybody appreciates authenticity; if you were to come here and have a beer with Mark Stutrud, that is the definition of a genuine, authentic person.

Todd Nelson