Dumping Denver, blowing off Chicago, mike’s hard lemonade® has said “yes” to Seattle.
mike's founder Anthony von Mandl is moving the company to find fresh resources. Specifically, new creative talent.
Mandl essentially created the “malternative” or FMB (flavored malt beverage) category six years ago with the launch of mike's hard lemonade® in New England. The first ten million cases were sold without any advertising. Now the company has outgrown its Denver headquarters and wants to move to a bigger talent pool. Want to work for mike's? Check the company's new recruiting website.
Facing a similar relocation dilemma a few years back, Boeing, you may recall, chose Chicago. But Mandl has opted for Seattle, in large measure because of what’s been called its “creative class.”
Seattle has the fifth-highest concentration of “creative” people (artists, designers, writers, software developers, etc.) in the country, according to Richard Florida's book The Rise of the Creative Class.
As it happens, Seattle's also a great market for mike's. It's 60 percent ahead of its closest competitor, Smirnoff Ice.
