Justin Rivett – Bristol based beer wholesale sales manager and brewery consultant. Justin is sales manager at Jolly Good Beer and moonlights helping out breweries get their product and sales strategies right. Justin has worked in sales in beer distribution and breweries for 10 years, and was instrumental in building and launching the Moor Brewery taproom in Bristol whilst running sales for the brewery. Justin has extensive product and industry knowledge from the viewpoint of working with publicans in ensuring their success with the beer he sells. Justin’s background before beer has always been sales based, including launching a Major sports shoe brand in the UK, Financial products, IT and has also been the Commercial Director of a Barristers Chamber after Law School, and Contract Manager for a Music Management Company.
Steve Sandana – Peterborough based brewer and bar operator. Owner and brewer at Bexar County Brewery, a specialist small-batch microbrewery established in 2012. As such Steve has extensive knowledge of beer from the raw ingredients through to the finished product. As well as being a brewer, Steve and a partner founded the successful Stoneworks bar in Peterborough back in 2016 – giving him the practical hands-on experience in opening and running a new bar from scratch – managing cellar, dispense, and staffing. Steve is from the USA, Texas specifically, and grew up amongst America’s booming craft beer scene – and brings to the UK advanced knowledge and ideas in high-quality service-led beer retail.
Yvan Seth – Wisbech based beer distribution and dispense business owner. Yvan founded Jolly Good Beer in April 2014 and has built the business from man+van scale to a 2.5m turnover and 15 staff. Jolly Good Beer’s key USP is quality – JGB operates a fully chilled warehouse and are the only UK distributor able to offer full-coldchain delivery to coldchain-ready bars. In addition to sales of beer, Jolly Good Beer sells cider, spirits, soft-drinks, cellar gas and other technical equipment. Yvan also installs high-end beer dispense systems for pubs, bars, and brewery taprooms across the UK. Prior to starting JGB Yvan was a software engineer who moved to the UK from Australia in 2006 – where he grew up in the wine and restaurant trade, this is a return to his hospitality roots. In the UK Yvan has been involved in running CAMRA branches and beer festivals for a decade, and brings skills in both technology and cask ale management to the table.