As a craft brewery owner there is no greater feeling than being at the bar, anonymous to the consumer, and watching someone step up and order your beer. It is the culmination of your dream; the beer you created is wanted by someone who could have ordered anything. But what that consumer never sees is

Continue Reading “MIKE’S MESSAGE”

1. Beer will decline this generation for many well-documented reasons. It will be the next decade before the pendulum swings back toward beer. Beer as reward, beer as social catalyst, beer as a badge…everything that traditionally made beer the preferred beverage is less relevant than ever. 2. ABI/MC will rebound and begin to dominate the

Continue Reading “10 Predictions for 2020s Decade”

Taking the long view of the past 80 years since Prohibition ended, it went something like this: 1940s and 50s Lots of local breweries making great beer. Kind of like today. 1960s and 70s Big beer takes over and knocks out the little guys. 1980s – 2000s Light beer domination gives rise to imports for

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Three Rules to Live By 1. The consumers will pay for your brand if they want it. That means great beer that’s fresh when they drink it; a brand people identify with; a taproom where they want to hang out. Get that right and everything else is easy. Get it wrong and nothing you do

Continue Reading “HOW TO SURVIVE PRICE COMPETITION AND EMERGE A WINNER”

There has been a lot of talk and writing about 15 packs lately. I was there for the first 15 pack, a long time ago, as a young marketing manager just starting out in the beer business. It actually started out as a 30 pack. It was the Stroh Brewery in the early 1980s. Volume

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There’s an old saying about distributors… “George Washington makes every decision”. Like most old sayings, it is true. Distributors are expert financial managers. Those who were not were bought out a long time ago. If you ever wonder why the distributors let so many great selling opportunities slip by and sometimes expect you to do

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Friends and Associates: Brewers Advisory Group announced that it acted as advisor to Palmetto Brewing Company in its agreement to be acquired by Catawba Brewing Company. The transaction closed in late December. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, Palmetto Brewery sold approximately 16,000 barrels in 2017, and has experienced rapid growth. Catawba Brewing sold about 17,500

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The 2017 Southern Brewers conference was well attended, with craft brewers wanting to know what is happening and what to do about it. Our seminar was entitled “The Coming Shakeout in the Craft Beer Market”. We explored the growth of (former) craft brands that have been acquired by A-B, MillerCoors, Heineken and Constellation. These brands

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Leaving the Southern Brewers Conference in Nashville last week, I noted some common themes that haven’t been heard before: Tough Exhausting Trouble Unlike other recent conferences, you could feel it in the air. There is a storm coming and most are not prepared. More breweries, too many skus, slower growth, rotating taps, consumer fatigue, big

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A hundred years ago, there were over 1,800 automobile manufacturing companies in the United States. Click here to see the list of those who succeeded and who didn’t. They were entrepreneurs with a dream, who risked everything. Most either sold their companies or went out of business the hard way. This list looks eerily like

Continue Reading “MERGERS BETWEEN CRAFT BREWERS ARE PART OF THE FUTURE”

It’s not the most fun part of the business but it may be the most important. Every Fall, suppliers meet with the distributors to review the past year and get agreement on goals and plans for next year. The distributors are usually polite and let you leave feeling pretty good, but what value does that

Continue Reading “IT’S WHOLESALER ABP SEASON: MAKE YOURS COUNT”

What competition will look like – is what competition has always looked like in the beer business. Doing whatever it takes to get your draught beer sold at the bar and keep it there. Stretching the rules to get some business. Discounting to fill capacity or move aging product. Here only the strong survive. It

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Pricing meetings are a ritual where there is a lot at stake and the wholesaler is usually way ahead of their suppliers. They do this every day; you do it once in a while, so the wholesaler has the edge. To a wholesaler, every penny actually matters. If a wholesaler sells 10 million cases equivalents

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You created this brand. It was your vision, your risk and your hard work that got it to where it is now, a popular local craft beer. So why is it that if your largest wholesaler wants to sell your brand to another wholesaler, the valuation of the distribution rights could be anywhere from 4x

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Maybe you will never sell your craft brewery. But it still makes sense to know how much it is worth. Sometimes initial investors want to cash out. Maybe you are looking for new, larger investors. Maybe the bank wants to know so you can increase your credit line. Valuations done properly are intensive numerical exercises

Continue Reading “HOW MUCH IS YOUR CRAFT BREWERY WORTH?”