Category: Uncategorized

The week after I arrived in Wichita, Kansas to take the lead at Coors of Kansas, I had to replace my operations manager.  I brought in one of my former Coors NE employees from San Antonio to assume the role of operations manager.  He did a great job in that role.  At the end of […]

When wholesalers only represented one brand such as AB, Schlitz, or Coors, brand owners were always under the gun to produce the results expected of them by their brewery.  As the years passed, however, wholesalers, fearing termination for any reason, ensured franchise legislation was passed making termination by their supplier difficult, if not impossible. Consolidation, […]

Viewership for this season’s NFL games is reportedly down by 10% year-to-date.  Some of this decline has been attributed to the “cutting the cord” on cable TV due to high costs.  ESPN has reportedly lost over four million subscribers. Another cause for the decline in viewership has been the length of the games, both college […]

Thanksgiving week is the time of the year we all step back and remember just how blessed we are to be living and working in this country.  Once again, our country has gone through a long and trying election process with a new administration taking over in January.  Regardless of anyone’s political stance, our system […]

On can certainly attest that for the past 50 years the beer industry has been an industry of consolidation.  Beginning with Philip Morris’ acquisition of the Miller Brewing Co. it seems more breweries are selling.  Once the top tier started, it facilitated consolidation at the middle tier, and the movement continues today. Philip Morris-Miller notwithstanding, […]

Relax, this week’s post is not about today’s election!  It is about…. Beer!  In 1970, the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. sold 15,129,000 bbls. making them a strong second place brewery behind AB.  Even by 1980, Schlitz sold over 12,000,000 bbls. that year but the loss of more than three million bbls. was due to the […]

Consolidation in the middle tier began to kick-up in the early 1980s when Schlitz started the journey, which would ultimately led to the death of this top selling brand. Of course, in non-Stroh markets, Schlitz wholesalers worked to pick up the right to distribute Stroh as the beer expanded across the U.S. into Schlitz –held […]

Around 1980, Albert Cramer, managing director and owner of Warsteiner decided to build an international export department targeting business in North America.  At the time, Germany was still divided into two factions: east and west.  Albert knew that for the brewery’s long term survival, he had to expand Warsteiner’s international footprint. What helped Albert make […]

Fifty percent of my career in the beer industry has been working with or selling Coors in one way or another.  Initially, as a helper on a Coors truck in Dallas while in college, to stints at the brewery in Distributor Development, running the Coors branch in Ogden, Utah, to leading three Coors distributorships.  These […]

When Coors expanded into South Texas in the mid-1970s, the brewery required each distributor to refrigerate their warehouse and, at a minimum, insulate or refrigerate every delivery truck.  Coors was delivered to each warehouse from Colorado on refrigerated trucks or heavily insulated railcars.  The beer was immediately put into the cold storage warehouse. In those […]