South Delaware Coors, Inc Essay

The Problem(s). Manson and Associates was doing a research to determine market potential of a Coors beer distributorship for a two-county area in southern Delaware on behalf of Larry Brownlow so Larry could find the answer for the following question:

Larry has several different options to choose from with respect to research studies that can be completed.  As long as he stays at or under his $15,000 budget he can request that any combination of studies be completed by Mason and Associates.  Larry was presented with 9 different research studies that may be of assistance to him in deciding whether or not this truly is a ‘golden’ opportunity.

The number one goal for this company is to reach the $100,000 mark in the year 2000. Based on the findings that are occurring in this company, the best way for this situation to have a chance of occurring is by reducing the price of the drinks during a certain period of the year. This time frame is best described between the

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.

The total product and per bottle cost under allocation based on direct-labor hours for Buffalo Ale, Bismark Bock and Four Heads Stout is $450.86 and $0.85, $347.79 and $0.91 and $369.96 and $0.86, respectively. Under activity based costing the total product and per bottle cost for Buffalo Ale, Bismark Bock and Four Heads Stout is $317.58 and $0.60, $615.5 and $1.6 and $379.29 and $0.88, respectively. Calculations can be found in Appendix A.

* We increased this costs as a percent of revenue 2.7% over the previous year for all forecasted periods

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 situation facing Mr. Larry Brownlow is a tough one. He is young with minimal money to work with. This shows that he must be careful and research all of his investing activities closely. The problem that faces him is deciding if opening a Coors Beer brewery in his area of Delaware is a profitable investment. The beer is obviously not widely carried in the area so that makes the situation that much harder. He has less information to work with. This is why he contacted the Manson Research Firm. That presents the second problem. The firm will do the research to help do a feasibility analysis, but the information is not cheap. Larry is working with about two weeks until the deadline to submit an application for distributorship. He

All of these studies were important information to start this distributorship in southern Delaware, but some studies were more vital to obtain than the others. There were a few options for Brownlow to do. One, he could perform no research on his own and only purchase research from Manson; doing this by, getting a loan from the bank. Two, he could perform some research on his own and purchase the remaining research from Manson. The last option would be to purchase none of the studies from Manson’s research proposal and research everything on his own.

In addition to selling beer in bottles and cans, the distributorship will also sell kegs (contribution margin of 1/3 of beer in bottles and cans). The case states (p. 280) that keg beer prices at the wholesale level were about 45% of prices for beer in bottles and cans. These two facts can be combined with wholesale costs and prices for beer in bottles and cans to produce an overall weighted average contribution.

Mr. Larry Brownlow needs to decide whether or not to apply for the Coors distributorship in southern Delaware.

Fred Flintstone has just become the product manager for Yabba Dabba Doo, a consumer packaged product with a retail price of $2.00. Retail margins on the product are 33%, while wholesalers take a 12% margin. Yabba and its direct competitors sell a total of 40 million units annually, and Yabba has 24% market share of this total. Variable manufacturing costs for Yabba are $0.09 per unit. Fixed manufacturing costs are $1,800,000. The advertising budget for Yabba is $1,000,000. The product manager’s salary and expenses total $70,000. Salespeople are paid entirely by a 10% commission. Shipping costs, breakage, insurance, and other

To perform a break-even analysis, we have made the following assumptions: (a) retail margin= 60%, (b) the additional fixed cost of production per flavor, including advertising, bottling run and sundries, is $10 million and this is assumed to be an annual cost, except the bottling run, (c) a conservative estimate of percentage share of market figure is derived by multiplying the market segment percentages, as well as the age segment percentage for the category > 40 yrs. The percentage = 74% x 62% x 85% x 40% = 16%. We first determine the retail

respondents from the brewing industry reported to incur inventory cost of about 2 to 3 % of their

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).