Boston Beer Company Swot Anaylsis Essay

A. 180 years of operation. This is one of their most compelling strengths. Being in operation for almost 200 years show the dedication the family has for the beer they produce and shows the amazing level of management they have. Just the fact that they have overcome hardships such as the great depression and the prohibition shows how powerful their management is.

Anheuser-Busch “is among the global company’s largest and most technologically capable breweries” (About, n.d.). On Anheuser-busch.com, you can find a lot of information about the company and their products. The headquarters of Anheuser Busch is located at One Busch Place St. Louis, MO 63118 (About, n.d.). The most known beer families that they produce are the Budweiser and bud light Family. There are numerous brands that Anheuser-Busch produces aside from Budweiser and Bud light. Initial searching for Bud Light Company because most of my family is enthralled by this beer, and upon further researching the beer brand, it was surprising to find that it was actually owned and manufactured by another company, Anheuser-Busch, that also manufactured

“The beer industry in the United States generates $75 Billion in annual sales.” (Abelli, 4)

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.

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze Sam Adams and the global craft beer market. I will apply microeconomic models to analyze the supply and demand conditions for Sam Adams, its price elasticity of demand for products, cost of production and the overall market. There will be recommendations to maximize future profits and sustain success for Sam Adams. In this paper I will also analyze the craft beer industry and recommend actions for better management of supply and demand, improving the cost of production and the different barriers of entry that Sam Adams can utilize to impact its future in the craft beer industry. Applying the concepts of variable and fixed costs, I will make recommendations for its output decisions and profitability that will help them succeed in a monopolistically competitive market structure. In the conclusion of this paper I will make recommendations to manage future production and sustain its success, as well as evaluate the business structure and effective decision-making strategies. The craft beer industry is a monopolistic competition because it has the ability to allow many firms to produce similar good or services, but it at the same time allows each firm to make independent production decisions and differentiate their product from the competition by creating its own pricing.

Boston Beer Company Mission statement is to “seek long-term profitable growth by offering the highest quality product to the U.S. beer drinker”

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.

Even though their shipping costs were twice the industry’s, average shipping costs would have been much more had they attempted to enter other states. Besides, Coors made up for the inefficiency with the scale of their plant, the largest in the nation. The location lent itself well to Coors’ ability to differentiate its product. For example Coors was brewed using “pure Rocky Mountain spring water.” Coors had a great opportunity to serve an underserved geographical market. Seven of 24 million barrels sold in the region had to be imported from production facilities outside of the region, and Coors’ Colorado facility was more central to the area than the three other closest facilities in Missouri, Texas, and Wisconsin. Coors had the second lowest production cost per barrel in the industry, in spite of their claim of the most expensive raw material costs. Their cost advantage stemmed from the industry’s highest capacity utilization, economies of scale through the country’s largest brewery, single product focus, and the industry’s fastest packaging lines. Matching their low production cost was the lowest advertising cost relative to the industry. The mystique that had been built up about Coors and their differentiating, all-natural appeal allowed them to get away with lower advertising costs than average for the industry. Coors differentiated their product, both in the

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 Boston Beer Company is currently the largest craft beer company in the United States, however, the craft beer industry is growing in an otherwise shrinking market increasing the amount of serious competition that The Boston Beer Company is facing.

Because Samuel Adams prides themselves on being a top notch craft beer producer, a lot rides on their reputation. Boston Beer and Samuel Adams have a strong reputation that rivals even the biggest of beer producers.

In 1999, they achieved record sales and earnings, selling over 100 million barrels of beer worldwide for the first time in history. August A. Busch III, Chairman of the Board and President, says his company owes its success to, “The combination of outstanding domestic beer industry fundamentals, the highest quality and freshest beer in the industry and exceptional marketing and sales execution.”

At the time in 1984 there was nothing like it in the market that had as much flavor, quality ingredients, and a unique brewing process. The company quickly grew to be a national brand and aimed to compete against Budweiser, Coors, and Miller by marketing to most bars, restaurants, retail stores and professional sports stadiums across the country. Fast forward about 20 years and a new market was emerging, the craft beer market. The craft beer market would now bring more competition to the market by offering consumers different styles of beer ranging from lagers to pale ales, IPA’s, stouts, and porters. Boston Beer was in a great position to be able to compete in this new market by having the brand recognition, production facilities in place, and distribution channels in force. Since the craft beer movement created a demand for new flavors and styles of beer, Boston Beer quickly went to work creating different beers to meet the demand at their production breweries. In 2014, Boston Beer Company commercially produced over 60 different styles of beer to make sure they had enough styles to offer all consumers while maintaining strong brand recognition by using the Samuel Adams name on all of its beers.

When an industry has been around as long as the beer brewing industry has, it is no secret that it has reached a pinnacle. At the same time, it shows no signs of decline, therefore

Craft Brewing Goes Public In August 1995, Paul Shipman, the CEO of Alridge Brewing (AB) prepared himself to enter uncharted territory. A craft brewing operation had never before been taken public in the United States, and he and his management team were about to do just that. Sure, there were massive large-batch breweries like Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing Company that were profitable, publicly traded firms—but there was something different about Alridge: it embodied the ethos and grassroots beginnings of the microbrew movement, and Shipman was confident that widespread market demand for craft beer was set to explode. He and the team had steadily developed their premium-quality handmade ales for nearly