Category: Uncategorized
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Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
In the 1970s, the beer distributors west of the Mississippi River were represented by not only their state associations, but by a regional assocation, the Rocky Mountain Conference of Beer Distributor Associations, headquartered in Phoenix. The members met twice a year, frequently at a resort. At the end of the decade, the association’s winter meeting […]
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However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
In the late 1980s, I joined Coast Distributors as the General Manager. Coast had been in existence for over 100 years, and still ownership was focused on the company’s long term plans. Immediately after joining the company, I led a committee to identify and design Coast’s long-term strategic growth plan. This strategy was centered on […]
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He was a wise man who invented beer.
Today, May 3rd, is the start of 2016’s Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia. This year’s convention has about 2,000 more registered attendees than last year’s convention, which was held in Portland. The 13,000 people in attendance will represent almost 900 exhibitors! An amazing number considering crafts represent only 12% of the US beer market. Without […]
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It’s not the arrow, its the Indian…..
By the early 1980s, the decline of Schlitz was accelerating. In fact, Schlitz was grasping for air as its sales were declining at a rapid rate. As previously discussed, this was due to adding an agent to the beer, chill-garde, to hide certain ingredients in Schlitz. This agent agitated the foam, created an off-taste, and, […]
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The continuing tsunami, 2016
In July of 2012, this blog wrote about the coming tsunami, highlighting the number of new beers and packages coming into the marketplace that were projected based upon that summer’s TTB new label filings. Distributors and retailers were both concerned about this massive influx of SKUs and ramped up their respective teams to figure out […]
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Never let the other fellow set the agenda..
There was much anticipation by both consumers and retailers in South Texas in 1976 when Coors expanded. Coors had been available in N. Texas for about 10 years and was the largest selling brand in all those markets so it seemed it would be a slam dunk to do the same in the southern part […]
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If we look at pricing holistically, we’ll create a more solid business.
The ebb and flow of the beer industry has always been tied to the annual seasons. The summer months have typically been the season when beer flows profusely, but even during the summer months, the holiday weeks truly can make or break the year’s sales numbers. Over the decades, the beer industry parlayed non-summer holidays […]
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If it looks like beer, smells like beer, and tastes like beer, than it is probably beer!
The statistics for 2015 craft sales have been released and there are really no surprises. Volume for the craft segment is now at 12% of the US market, a 13% increase over 2014, which translated to 24.5 million bbls and $22.3 billion. A nice increase over 2014 numbers which were 19% of the total dollars […]
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Nothing is original, except what is forgotten…
There were times years ago that beer company route salesman played rough games with each other’s products. Many decades ago I can recall when the beer in my long neck bottles had gone flat even though the beer was fresh and had been refrigerated. Upon inspection, one could see that the crowns had been cracked […]
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When you lose you are in a no win situation..
About 16 years ago, while Glazers was building their craft and import business, an effort was made to gain statewide distribution rights to a small but successful craft brewery located in Blanco, Texas. At the time, Real Ale Brewing Co., which was brewing in the basement of an old building in this small town, sold […]