{"id":5364,"date":"2019-04-02T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=5364"},"modified":"2019-03-28T11:02:56","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T16:02:56","slug":"success-is-always-a-matter-of-some-luck-and-timing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=5364","title":{"rendered":"Success is always a matter of some luck and timing."},"content":{"rendered":"

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In the early 1970s, Texas was by far the largest volume-producing state for the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company.\u00a0 Texas itself was a stand-alone division of Schlitz, and the largest division in the company. Many of the Schlitz wholesalers were ranked in the top ten in volume:\u00a0 Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas were all in the top five, with Austin and the Valley rounding out the top 10.\u00a0 These large distributors did not need multiple markets to obtain their high rankings, in other words, their footprints were exclusive to their respective cities.<\/p>\n

Even the expansion of Coors into South Texas in the mid-1970s did little to dent Schlitz’s market share.\u00a0 The Coors expansion, coupled with the rapid growth of Miller Lite, however, had raised eyebrows among some of the Schlitz wholesalers who began to look at their own futures. \u00a0Coors had gone with exclusive wholesalers and their initial market share was as low as two to three percent, up to 13%. It would, however, be several years before the Coors houses started selling out to other distributors.<\/p>\n

By the early 1980s, with their volume in decline and a loss of confidence in Schlitz’s senior management, Schlitz wholesalers began to sell their\u00a0companies in an effort to maximize their own investments.\u00a0 The Valley was one of the first to sell, followed by San Antonio. The Alamo City still had Schlitz roots in their GLI make-up and, interestingly, the Schlitz warehouse sign still sits on top of their warehouse.\u00a0 The sale of Austin, Dallas, and others key markets quickened the death of Schlitz.<\/p>\n

So the question is, did these buyers get any return on their investment in Schlitz?\u00a0 It is probably safe to say that those who sold never regretted their decision to sell. Honestly, some may have wished they had sold years earlier.\u00a0 It is all about timing when selling.<\/p>\n

Recently it was announced that Silver Eagle, the largest AB house in the U.S., had sold its Houston operation.\u00a0 The selling price was rumored to be close to one billion dollars. \u00a0It is no secret that the volume losses of Bud and Bud Light have been dramatic with no turnaround in sight.\u00a0 John Nau, the owner of Silver Eagle will maintain ownership over the San Antonio branch. Many of the small to medium size AB houses will most certainly be contemplating selling to large AB operations where certain synergies\u00a0can be realized.\u00a0 It makes sense given current trends for the AB operations.<\/p>\n

The Schlitz operations of 30 years ago were not as diversified as today\u2019s businesses.\u00a0 Combined with the rapid decline of Schlitz, these wholesalers had no choice but to sell.\u00a0 I have never had a former Schlitz wholesaler state regret at their decision to sell, while on the contrary, I have had both former Coors and AB wholesalers state their regret in selling.<\/p>\n

The next five years will shed some light on the future of many of the AB houses.<\/p>\n

Success is a matter of luck and<\/em> timing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

In the early 1970s, Texas was by far the largest volume-producing state for the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company.\u00a0 Texas itself was a stand-alone division of Schlitz, and the largest division in the company. Many of the Schlitz wholesalers were ranked in the top ten in volume:\u00a0 Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas were all in the […]<\/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-1ow","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5364"}],"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=5364"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5375,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5364\/revisions\/5375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}