Marin County wine, beer, spirits producer WX Brands gets new CEO

Oliver Colvin is the new CEO of WX Brands, a Novato-based company reporting sales of four million cases of wine a year in 20 countries.

Colvin moves into the post from the company’s chief operating officer job, a position he has held for 10 years. He’ll replace Peter Byck, whose plans for the future were not announced.

“I want to continue what Peter has built: a company culture of grit and teamwork, two characteristics that have enabled our success thus far and will carry us into the future,” stated Colvin in the announcement.

His career path includes previous posts at WX Brands including head of operations, head of international sales as well as the company’s U.S. sales. Before he joined the Marin County company, Colvin was senior vice resident and assistant general counsel at Silicon Valley Bank and, prior to that, he was a partner in a law firm.

In its announcement, the company said it is “well positioned” for new growth. Last year, the Journal reported that the Bemberg Family Group announced their Terold investment group purchased a majority stake in WX Brands. The company also owns Grupo Peñaflor, the leading Argentine wine company, as well as a distribution and production agreement for Diageo’s spirits products in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

Byck co-founded WX as WineryExchange.com in 2000 as a business-to-business portal for products. That model shifted after the 2001 dot-com bomb to producing brands for retailers and other companies, later expanding into making its own national brands.