Boston Beer Case Study

In 1844, the Empire Brewery was founded by Jacob Best and his sons in Milwaukee, WI. In 1860, Jacob’s son Phillip took over and renamed the brewery the Phillip Best Company. Phillip’s daughter, Maria married a steamship captain, Frederick Pabst. Captain Pabst sold his shipping interest and bought a partnership stake in the brewery. In 1872, Captain Pabst became President of the company. In 1889, he renamed the business the Pabst Brewing Company.

They want to expand into the lager industry which is excellent strategic move due to the fact that it allows them to create a niche market in the area. There are no local lager breweries in the area anymore this should definitely be displayed through sales profits.

Consumer demand for robust ale was not being fulfilled with the current beers on the market. In 1991 Jeff Lebesch and his wife Kim started the company out of their basement. They focused on the rich flavor and unique concept. Their focus on social and environmental responsibility has set them apart from brewing companies on the market. Jeff and his wife wanted to promote a product while being innovative and socially responsible. They designed their core values and mission statement while hiking in a national park (Ferrell, 2010). In addition they wanted to promote the brand and corporate citizenship (Ferrell, 2010). Although the product is alcohol they encourage consumers to be responsible. Also, they have sponsored events, dinners and philanthropic causes to help gain consumer loyalty. In 2013, USA named NBB as 6 out of 15 best brewing companies (Franklin, 2013). Also, the company has increased is competitive advantage with is stance on environmental conscience brewing. They were the first brewery to utilize wind power generator, even with an increase cost of .025 per kilowatt (Asher, Bidner and Greene, 2003). Also, they utilize light tunnels, windows and recycled steam to reduce their carbon footprint (Gorski, 2013). In 2002 NBB participated in the LEED-EB pilot program (Ferrell, 2010). Furthermore, the company donates $1 for every barrel of beer sold to each of the 26 states territories and distributed $700,000 in 2012 (What we are about, 2013). Despite

Boston Beer Company (BBC) has enjoyed much success with their craft beers with Samuel Adams as their main focus. Being the leader of this segment, overtopping five of their competitors combined (Exhibit 1), the company now must decide how to take advantage of the light beer market. Boston Lightship, their current light beer, had been a small contributor in BBC’s product line. Currently, it is facing dwindling sales with product volumes down from 12 000 cases per month to 3000 cases per month.

In 1838, Johann Adam Lemp settled down in St. Louis and opened a grocery store where he sold home-brewed beer based on his family recipe. His beer business was a huge success and in just 2 years, his demand for beer grew so much that he closed his grocery store and opened up a brewery instead.

One of the fastest growing trends in the first decade and a half of the 21st century has most certainly been craft beer and

“raising the bar for better beer” Samuel Adams sets superior standards for quality craft beers. They insist that the world should only have the finest ingredients to make the best beer possible. They will travel the world to hand select the hops, barely, and other ingredients that go into each brew. Koch, is known for his annual hops selection trip to Bavaria. The hops farmer always would comment on when he would sniff of the hops is what drives him for success. In order to ensure that drinkers enjoy the freshness of Samuel Adams beer, the way the brewers intended. Koch would create an all-natural way of producing his beer. Everything being fresh, within date of expiration with no preservatives.

Gordon Biersch had extensive growth plans of opening over 100 restaurants across the nation with in 8 to 10 years. However, the growth they envisioned demanded a lot of time, dedication and expertise. They debated upon three different organizational approaches (1)

One of the weaknesses to distributing Coors beer in the two counties is the competition of other domestic and microbrew beers. Although the consumer and retailer willingness to buy Coors beer is high, will they actually purchase Coors beer when it becomes available to them? The questionnaires have strong feedback for Coors beer in the Delaware counties but people may become biased by their customer loyalty to other beer brand. There is a big enough marker share for Coors to be implemented, but will Brownlow be able to succeed in this competitive industry.

The Boston Beer Company, Inc., founded in 1984, is a leading brewer in United States, offering wide variety of high quality full-flavored, handcraftedbeers. It is distinctive due to the time-honored recipe of brewing and authentic, consistent quality of alcoholic beverages. Samuel Adams Boston Lager is the pride of BBC, regular handcrafted beer “stands for quality, inner self-worth, authenticity, and unique New England or Yankee toughness” ( Martin Roper, Chief Operating Officer). Unfortunately, the company experienced the failure of conquering light beer segment

The documentary shows how the two small beer entrepreneurs, Rhonda and Sam try to establish themselves in the beer industry and success in the high potential market. The film shows that the beer industry is governed by some difficult and outdated laws along with an oligopoly of the large brands. These large brands manipulate the beer industry by acquiring and buying off the smaller brands which they find competitive among the market. The small brewers thus face difficulties and barriers establishing themselves in the American beer industry. The big giants like the Coors Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch, and the Miller Brewing Company face challenge from the independent craft beer producers when these new brands are put on shelves; so they seek ways to prevent distribution and production of these small brands, which is harmful for the competition in the beer industry. Sam Calagione and Rhonda Kallman are considered as small entrepreneurs in the beer industry who struggle from the large brands, the difficult laws, and the less competitive but highly profitable

The Boston Beer Company and Samuel Adams have both had a long history. Since the 1870s, six generations of the Koch family have been involved with beer. In the early 1980s, the seventh generations almost turned his back on the family business. After graduating from graduate school, Jim Koch wanted to stray always for the family business and seek a career in management consulting. After a short time in the consulting business, Koch decided that he just could not ignore his destiny to create a new, different beer. In 1984, Koch was on the search for a “better beer”. The only options at the time on the market were pale lagers from mass producers (Company), Koch decided there needed to be a change. In April 1985, Samuel Adams made in bar

Several attempts have been made by Boston Beer Company to continue on a growth streak but not all attempts have been successful. The main goals for Boston Beer Company are to increase revenue and continue growing in the industry. Boston Beer Company has had trouble growing as barriers of entry are low and competition is high. Even though the market has seen a slight upturn, however Boston Beer’s founder Jim Koch elaborates on the company’s dissatisfaction, “We are disappointed with our depletion trends in 2016, which have remained weak so far in 2017. These trends are affected by the general softening of the craft-beer category and cider category and a more challenging retail environment with a lot of new options for our drinkers”. (https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/22/boston-beer-finds-growth-the-hard-way.aspx)

The Coors Brewing Company was founded back in 1873 by two German immigrants Adolph Coors and Jacob Schueler. The two combined invested $20,000, $18,000 of which came from Schueler and the other $2,000 from Coors. The location of the brewery was in the mining town of Golden, Colorado. This location was picked because Mr. Coors believed the key ingredient in beer was the water source. The river that flowed through this mining town was perfect for his beer. The two investors worked together for seven years until Coors bought out Schueler and became the sole owner of the brewery in 1880. When prohibition finally hit Colorado in the year 1916, Mr. Coors was forced to find other means of making money. The brewery was converted to produce malted milk which he would then sell to candy companies. Four years after Adolph Coors passing, in 1929, prohibition is ended and his son, Adolph Coors Jr., takes over the family business. The distribution range of the company quickly expands and by 1948, it stretches across 11 states. It would remain this way for almost 30 years before they start to expand to try and reach a nationwide audience. In 2005, now in its fourth generation of Coors family management, the Coors Brewing Company votes to merge with Molson Brewing Company in Canada to form the Molson Coors Brewing Company. Together they are the world’s seventh largest brewer. Two years later

Belgium is home of the finest ales and have been known to brew for centuries. So when Jeff Lebesch, an electrical engineer from Fort Collins, Colorado took a bicycle trip through Belgium it made him realize there may be a market back home to sell Belgian-style ale. Jeff returned home with hopes to experiment and brew his own beer in his basement from the various ingredients he received on his trip. When his friends approved of the ales he started marketing them to the local town. He later opened New Belgium Brewing Company in 1991. His wife, Kim Jordan was the company’s marketing director. They named their first brew “Fat Tire Amber Ale” after Jeff’s