Champion Brewing Co. Names Clay Cooper Director of Sales

Champion Brewing Co. in Charlottesville, Virginia has announced the hiring of Clay Cooper as the brewery's new Director of Sales.

Cooper previously worked with New Holland Brewing Co., where the brewery grew more than 300 percent to 40,000 barrels annually.

The full release from Champion is below.

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Champion Brewing Company today announced the hire of Clay Cooper, as its new director of sales. Cooper, formerly of New Holland Brewing Company, brings more than thirty years of sales experience in a variety of industries to Champion. While at New Holland, Cooper was part of a team that grew the business 300 percent to 40,000 barrels per year.

In addition to a new sales director, Champion has also made changes to its leadership team: seasoned brewer Josh Skinner has been promoted to director of brewing operations and Chris Gregoria has been promoted to lead brewer, while Jason Okusa moves up to production manager. On the business side, Jonny Nuckols has been named operations manager.

“We’re so glad to welcome Clay to the Champion team. His experience is a great fit to take Champion to the next level,” said Hunter Smith, owner of Champion Brewing Company. “Now that Champion is in its seventh year, it was time for a staff shuffle. We’re excited about what this new leadership team will achieve.”

On February 22, Champion’s Tap Room in Charlottesville will release Intelligence and Diligence, a beer brewed in collaboration with Good Beer Hunting and inspired by the words of scholar and homebrewer J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham, Ph.D. and the work of Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved brewer, Peter Hemings. The event takes place at 5:00 p.m. at the Charlottesville Tap Room (324 Sixth Street SE).

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Champion Brewing Company is a Charlottesville-based craft brewery with a three-barrel Tap Room and the “Missile Factory,” a 30-barrel production facility recently expanded to 15,000 barrels of capacity. Champion opened a second Tap Room in Richmond, Virginia in 2016 and Brasserie Saison, a restaurant and brewery on the downtown mall in Charlottesville, in February, 2017.