Deutsche Brauerei Case

Gera International is a well established international brand of beer that is ranked amongst the top three brands of beer in the world. With transportation prices rising, Gera International decided to purchase a plant in Antigua in 2005 and they renamed the subsidiary, Caribbean Brewers, Inc. (CBI). In 2008, the production facilities of CBI were expanded and their productive capacity doubled. Furthermore, we are then introduced to Jason Joseph a production manager who is unhappy and distressed because along with the production doubling, he lost ownership in the company, bonuses, and annual dividends. JJ comes to us (the financial advisor to the CFO) and informs us

Secondly, After a fire destroyed the manufacturing plant in 1994, the more efficient equipment was purchased. It was capable of increasing the brewery’s potential output. Once Deutsche Brauerei expanded into the Ukraine, the additional capacity became necessary to handle the expansion in Ukrainnian market.Therefore, Deutsche Brauerei can effectively utilize the unused capacity.

The company has been functioning well in terms of generating profit and demand so far. However, there will be a 20% increase in demand for the next month of operations as predicted by management, and the production and supply management's problems may come as a problem they can no longer afford.

The income over the last three years has been fluctuating.. This tells us the company has an initial growth period. Sales also drop between years 7 and 8 and the gross profit margin decreased as well. This may be due to operating expenses. This leads to the prospect of stable future sales. The stakeholders are continuing to back the company and the company does predict sales will remain stable. The modest increase in sales does not show enough to recover without making adjustments to free capital.

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.

Referring to Vice President of Finance, he want to pursue the current approach because they are in profitable based on contribution margin by 35 percent. The company just needs to monitor their margin in control their cost well.

The upgrade of the Rotterdam plant involves implementing the Japanese technology and requires a capital expenditure of £8.0 million with £3.5 million spent today, £2.0 million on year one, £1.0 million on year two and £1.0 million on year three. This will also increase polypropylene output by 7% from current levels at a rate of 2.0% per year. In addition, gross margin will improve by 0.8% per year from 11.5% to 16.0%. After auditing the financial models, it is concluded that the static net present value of the upgrade is -£6.35 million using a discount rate of 10% and an expected inflation rate of 3% annually. The Rotterdam upgrade contains an option to switch to the speculated German technology being available in five years. The current value of the option is zero as it is deeply out-of-the-money. The total net present value of the upgrade is -£6.35 million. The incremental earnings per share of the upgrade is £ 0.0013, the payback period is 14.13 years, and the internal rate of return is 18.7%.

In light of the situation mentioned above, FPL has to ensure that it has the resources available to meet future competition where one of the determinants of winning or retaining new business may be price. Hence, its dividend payout policy must be modified to account for these industry changes.

Deutsche Bank made its entrance into the world in 1870 and it was one of the first banks to adopt universal banking as it promoted and facilitated trade relations between Germany and other overseas markets. Deutsche Bank acquired smaller banks in Germany in order to be the most prominent bank in their home base in addition to having a global reach. Following World War I, inflation took over Germany causing many borrowers to default on their loans forcing the bank to sell most of its assets in order to stay alive (however that diminished their global presence). The bank’s involvement during World War II with the transferring of the Jewish customers holdings to the German Government led to the Allied

Keller introduced an aggressive marketing strategy that was heavily dependent on developing and maintaining personal relationships with Konigsbrau’s distributers all the way down to the retail level. Because there was not much differentiation among premium beers, it was important that Konigsbrau stands out from the competition. Keller believed that the close relationship with their distributors and sales team was just what they needed. He felt that the upper management needed to be seen out in the field with the sales force supporting them at all times.

In the summer of 2008, InBev NV, a Belgian-based brewing company formed from the merger of InterBrew and AmBev, offered a bid of $46.6 billion to acquire Anheuser-Busch Co to create the world’s largest brewing company at $65 a share. The initial offer was subsequently declined in part because the company felt the offer undervalued the company greatly. InBev later increased their offer to $70 a share and in Mid-July, Anheuser-Busch accepted the offer making the total cost of the deal $54.8 billion dollars. The issue then becomes whether the offer of $70 is justifiable to InBev’s shareholders. The merger brings about two different management styles. The culture at InBev focused on extreme cost-cutting measures and profitable incentive-based compensation programs. However, Anheuser-Busch’s culture differed in that they prided itself on philanthropy, diversity, and community involvement. In addition, this company possessed many luxurious offices and corporate fleet of aircrafts. Furthermore, they invested heavily in advertising, derived most of their profits in the United States, and possessed a lackluster international expansion plan. Issues the financial managers face will be differing business philosophies in regards to marketing (“Grow/Defend/Maintain/Cash” matrix approach vs the large marketing budget of Anheuser-Busch), culture (cost cutting measures vs company perks), and the future of the twelve

Meanwhile, since Grolsch used other brewers for distribution while importing beer into foreign countries, the ongoing industry consolidation often led to a need for changing distributors. In several of their markets Grolsch was already on its third or fourth distributor in the span of 15 years. Besides the political, economic, and logistical issues Grolsch had to adapt to, they also were adapting to cultural differences. Their marketing campaigns would vary significantly from market-to-market. While their ability to be nimble, change strategies, and adapt where necessary has been a benefit, it has also been limiting in that Grolsch has struggled to build a consistent brand image and market position in several of its key markets. For example, even though the UK accounted for 25% of Grolsch’s volume, they still only held 1.5% of the UK market. Further, operations have been impacted by the consistent turnover of distributors in several important markets. Grolsch’s adaptation strategy has kept them nimble but has prevented any large scale and stability in certain countries outside the Netherlands.

The newly appointed district sales manager, Larry Barr, faces the problem of allocating sales quotas among his various sales representatives. This decision will affect everyone's earnings including his own. This problem is compounded by the fact that different territories have, for a variety of reasons, different potentials. In addition, the territory that is known to be the toughest will soon require a new sales rep.

Fund flow statements are prepared by taking the balance sheets for two dates representing the coverage period. The increases and decreases must then be calculated for each item. Finally, the changes are classified under four categories: (1) Long-term sources, (2) long-term uses, (3) short-term sources, (4) short-term uses.

Beer Company 2 is a brewer of “seasonal and year-round beers with smaller production volume and higher prices” that “outsources most of its brewing activity” (pg. 120). It is financially conservative, and has undergone a “major cost-savings initiative to counterbalance the recent surge in packaging and freight costs” (pg. 120).