Boston Beer Company Performance and Competition
Boston Beer’s sales performance triumphs over its leading two competitors, Redhook Ale Brewery and Pete’s Brewing Company. As seen in the table (appendix 1), BBC achieved net sales of $114,833,000 in the year ending 31 December 1994. This was a growth of 48.84% from the previous year, compared to Redhook’s 30% growth in net sales to $14,929,000 and Pete’s striking growth of 152.02% to net sales of $30,837,000. Pete’s impressive growth in net sales is evidently the greatest by far, however it does not compare as its net sales is only 26.84% of BBC’s.
BBC utilises contract brewing for its beer production. This was a central part of BBC’s company strategy as it allowed excess capacity
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Market Size and Outlook
The Repeal of Alcohol Prohibition of 1935 saw the steady growth of the beer industry to form a highly lucrative business sector valued at $50 billion. There was however no growth in between the years of 1981 to 1994 with domestic per capita beer consumption dropping from its peak in 1981 at 23.1 gallons per person to 21.5 gallons in 1984. Furthermore, the overall industry growth rate was a mediocre 0.1% with analysts expecting this no growth rate to continue in the near future. There were several reasons for such stagnant growth including various social and regulatory factors such as an aging population, social pressures on drinking and driving, an emphasis on healthier diets, and an increase in the drinking age of many states from 18 to 21 years of age in the United States.
The overall industry however is not a reflection on the specific segments; in particular the craft brewing industry. Boston Beer Company’s sales grew at a compound rate of 40% over the five year period ending 1994 emphasising the wave of success the craft brewing industry was experiencing. The growth spurred the founding of over 600 specialty beer companies. There were again, a number of social factors which could attribute to such figures including an increased popularity in the speciality beer reflecting trends in the overall food and beverage market for an
“The beer industry in the United States generates $75 Billion in annual sales.” (Abelli, 4)
In this paper I will be talking about the U.S. beer industry and in short an overview of the brewing industry worldwide. I will talk about the barriers to entry, economies of scale, government intervention, pricing, current market trends, product differentiation, and imports. The focus being mainly on the U.S. brewing industry oligopoly. The U.S. brewing industry has three major players: Anheuser-Busch, SAB Miller, and Coors/Molson. Anheuser-Busch is currently the largest brewer in the world, producing over 100 million barrels a year. Anheuser-Busch currently owns over 50% of the market in the United States, with Miller trailing behind at 20% and Coors at about 11% with the rest of the market occupied by imports and craft breweries. When analyzing any industry, how easy it is for newcomers to enter the market is a great importance. If there are high barriers to entry
In a world where large, corporate breweries rule the market, craft beer is created to please an audience that applauds the styles, techniques and flavors. Though craft beer can be purchased through several different outlets, the best place to thoroughly enjoy the entire experience of the specially made beer is in the brewery where it was made. The article titled, “In Lean Times, a Stout Dream” in The Wall Street Journal1 states that, despite the hard economic times and consequent consumer cutbacks, sales of craft beer, the industry 's fastest-growing segment, rose
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.
Society’s attitude towards the drinking age has been a major controversy in the United States. The attitudes regarding the drinking age have been based off statistics and society’s varying opinion. Alcohol is a toxic depressant that has a damaging effect on the human body. As a result, to prevent excessive alcoholic consumption, the ratification of the 18th amendment took place from 1919 to 1939. This established the Prohibition Act, which banned the transportation, manufacturing and selling of an alcoholic beverage. However, illegal production of alcohol continued to take place in secret. Gradually prohibition laws became difficult to enforce. As a result, the Prohibition Act was repealed in 1933. In 1984, congress mandated a law which would raise the drinking age from 18 to 21 through the National Minimum Drinking Age. Reasoning for mandating an older drinking age, was to enhance public safety and promote good health. In 1988, all 50 states enforced the drinking age to 21. The concern for the consumption of alcohol have targeted teenagers and young adults
The next project was bottling Gordon Biersch signature beer and retailing it. This had three biggest challenges: this project was entirely Gordon’s baby and demanded time and attention; secondly the freshness of the bottled beer versus the freshly brewed was an issue for which they decided the beer would have a shelf life no longer than three months. Thirdly and the most exciting challenge was the head-to-head competition with other microbreweries and premium beers. Despite the tough competitive environment, Gordon Biersch aimed to achieve 11% of the market in three years (by 1996). This retail venture required huge investment, thus they decided to start small to prove to the investors that they could pull it off.
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 main decision problem for Boston Beer Company is whether or not it should remain in the light beer market. This is followed by four subsidiary decision problems if the answer to main problem is yes: should BBC create a new light beer brand, and if so what positioning should it take, should they keep Lightship, and if yes, should BBC maintain or change Lightship’s positioning. The research problems are as follows: it is profitable for BBC to remain in the light beer market, what are the growth trends, what role does light beer play in the retail scene, what types of people drink light beers, what are their values, is the positioning of Lightship in line with what light beer drinkers seek, and if not it is feasible to change its
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)
Molson Coors is a thriving international brewing company that has nine Signature Brew drinks and 123 Special Brew drinks that ranges from non-alcoholic to alcoholic (Molson Coors Brewing Company, 2016b). They have multiple markets around the world which contributes to the success of the company in the brewing industry. This report analyzes Molson Coors’ internal and external environments which determines their position in the brewing industry. It also discusses strategies the company uses in order to be successful in their industry. Molson Coors shares the industry with its main competitors but has its own uniqueness that makes its business stand out. Molson Coors is a successful business that presents opportunities for economic growth.
Boston Beer, in response to consumers’ preference changes to more flavorful and bitter tasting brews, was founded in 1894. Boston Beer implements a “quality at any cost” strategy with a strong emphasis on product differentiation and implementing quality ingredients into its products. For instance, Boston Beer was the first company to employ a stamped freshness date on its bottles and ingredients are imported from around the world. Additionally, Boston Beer relies heavily on contract brewing to gain competitive advantages. Boston Beer’s contract brewing strategy results in lower overhead and transportation costs, as well as
Molson Coors ability to create loyal customers contributes to the company being one of the worlds largest brewery companies bringing in $5.6 billion a year in sales. The company employs 11,000 employees with 10 breweries in 3 different countries. Although the company only produces 40 brands of beer, two of them, Coors and Coors Light, were appointed top beer brands form the national customer loyalty study for three consecutive years. SABMiller, who acquired the Miller Brewing Company in 2002, produces over 200 beer brands and brews in over 60 countries. The company decided to specialize in premium brands of beer and were compensated in 2006 with a 19% increase in revenue. The company prides its self on emphasizng the fewer carbohydrates and better taste its line of beers has compared to its competitors. The company proves this with winning the Miller Light Taste Challeng, a point-of-sale taste test. Another competitor of Anheuser-Busch is Heineken NV. Heineken produces 170 beer brands and owns 115 breweries in 65 different countries with 65,648 employees. The company specializes in lagers, speciality beers, light beers, alcoholic-free beers, and soft drinks. Although competition with these companies is combative, Anheuser-Busch (ABI) continues to be the leader in brewery with higher revenues and net income. The company employs over 30,183 in 27 breweries compared to the industries average of 480
The brewing industry is interesting to examine due to its relatively unique structure. Up until November 2015, the market was dominated by four main players, known informally as the “Big Four”. AB InBev was the largest, followed by SABMiller, Heineken and Carlsberg. In November 2015, however, ABInBev and SABMiller agreed a formal $107 billion takeover deal, combining the brewers into a company which industry experts claim would control around half of the industry’s profits (Mickle, 2015). As a result of the sheer size and complexity of the merger, it is anticipated that the deal will not be finalised until the second half of 2016 as ABInBev must negotiate with anti-trust regulators around the world with respect to their potential monopolistic position. As the deal is yet to be completed, this report will analyse ABInBev independent of SABMiller.
Although sales of premium brands have fallen in a steady response to the growing popularity of the craft beer. The industry revenue has been stable over the past 5 years. As a result, from 2011 to 2016 the industry revenue is expected an increase and growth annually at 6.7 percent over the five years,with a total of $39.5 billion . (IBISWorld iExpert) In the long-term, these numbers are expected that grow 0.9 percent annually within the next five years. The potential growth will be seen in the traditional and premium beer sector. As a response, the giant companies in the industry Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors look forward into the merges and acquisitions as a strategy to maintain market dominance. The strategy is based on the
Despite the dominance of Carlsberg, in its annual report BGD could lay claim to being the largest Scandinavian beer exporter. This was because Carlsberg placed emphasis on licensing agreements or local production for its foreign markets, while BGD’s strategy was export led: ‘Eighty-three out of every hundred bottles of beer that we produce are sold in foreign markets.’ By 1995 the percentage of export sales by region of the world was as follows: western Europe 63 per cent, the Americas 10 per cent, eastern Europe 22 per cent, others 5 per cent. The development of BGD’s operations in some of these markets is now reviewed.