Month: July 2013
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If the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be….
In 1978, I was at Coors Northeast (The Orbit Corp.) in San Antonio. As VP of Sales, I oversaw the development of the start-up distributorship which was awarded to Charles Duke, Jr., a former astronaut and Air Force General. We opened in 1975 with great success, and by 1978, Charlie decided that being in the […]
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When an irresistible force meets an immovable object….
During the late 1980s, I was in Distributor Development for Coors Brewing Co. The department had been charged with overseeing a number of special projects. In addition to owning and managing Coors operations through Ford Street Management, we also helped our wholesalers on special issues when requested by the wholesaler. On the rare occasion that […]
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Happy Anniversary……
With this post, we celebrate the first anniversary of BeerBusinessUnplugged, so I thought I would take the opportunity to comment on just how this endeavor has gone over the past year. Having just entered into my 45th year in the beer industry, I originally wanted to comment on topics which I believed the industry was not properly handling. I had […]
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“If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up some place else.”
Some years ago, as Glazer’s stepped up its aggressive expansion into mid-western states, one of their primary targets was Illinois. Their opportunity to establish a footprint in Chicago came when they were offered a JV with National’s Union Distributors. Union, had been struggling for sometime and needed help in building a stronger portfolio, which Glazer’s […]
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Adapt, improvse, and overcome……
I’ve been to New York city twice this summer on business. The first trip I spoke to several investment people on the topic of craft beers verses domestics; the second visit, I met industry lawyers. During my conversation with the lawyers, we discussed the impact of franchise protection when a wholesaler sells their business. As I […]