{"id":2678,"date":"2015-10-13T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=2678"},"modified":"2015-10-12T09:04:20","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T14:04:20","slug":"face-place-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=2678","title":{"rendered":"Face – Place – Story…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Survey\"<\/a>One day, during my first summer on a Coors beer route, we were finishing our work with a liquor store in downtown Dallas. I stood by a stack of Miller High Life, with the salesman writing the delivery bill, when the store owner looked my way and commented on the Miller. \u00a0He said that that Miller was a hidden gem, and that if someone had the money to invest in it, the beer would be a major brand.<\/p>\n

As history has shown, this is exactly what happened when Philip Morris bought Miller Brewing in what might be the first of multiple occasions when a brewery was bought or merged with others.\u00a0 Every week the industry announces another craft brewery selling or taking on an investor. \u00a0This is, of course, happening in the shadow of the ABI\/SABMiller deal.<\/p>\n

When Scott Whitley, a longtime employee of MillerCoors and currently the CEO of Tenth and Blake headed the brewery\u2019s Denver distributorship, he commented on what he looked for in potential new brands.\u00a0 Scott believed that new brands must have a face, a place, and a story. \u00a0Brands with these three key points, assuming one is dealing with a quality brand, would be successful.<\/p>\n

The activity from PE firms on interest in crafts have increased dramatically in recent months. \u00a0In conversations with these firms, the number one question is just how big will the craft segment grow? \u00a0That is a difficult question to answer for anyone. \u00a0 Using Oregon and Washington as templates, however, crafts have the potential of being as much as 50% of the US market.<\/p>\n

The next question should always be: what does it take to be successful? \u00a0Which is answered by the same comment made by Scott: a face, a place and a story. \u00a0Quality included. \u00a0Once those key drivers are explained, the PE firms understand what this means.<\/p>\n

In some ways, it is ironic that the successful crafts combine all three of these drivers. When talking to a PE firm, they start with the comment that they only invest in firms within their qualifiers. \u00a0For example, the PE firm might be interested only in breweries within $5 to $15 million in revenues.<\/p>\n

When you look at any successful craft, you see that all of these components do exist. \u00a0To name a few: Jim Koch-Boston Beers; Kim Jordan- New Belgium; Larry Bell-Bells Brewery; Tony Magee- Lagunitas; and Meg Gill-Golden Road. \u00a0A place is self-explanatory, and when you look at these companies they all have one. And, of course, there are many compelling stories upon which to base marketing.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s start-up crafts need to incorporate all three key points if they plan on being successful to any degree. \u00a0Those that do not, will not survive, or will not stand out in the massive clutter of brands in today’s market.<\/p>\n

Investors and PE companies should follow the beer wholesalers\u2019 lead when they take a serious look at a particular craft brewery. \u00a0Successful beer companies all have the same core: a face, a place and a story.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One day, during my first summer on a Coors beer route, we were finishing our work with a liquor store in downtown Dallas. I stood by a stack of Miller High Life, with the salesman writing the delivery bill, when the store owner looked my way and commented on the Miller. \u00a0He said that that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xRTi-Hc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2678"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2938,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions\/2938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}