Boston Lager Case Study

The P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company was founded in 1840 in Newark, NJ by Peter Ballantine. In 1972, it was purchased by the Falstaff Brewing Corporation. In 1985, Falstaff was purchased by Pabst.

Originally located in Cranston, Rhode Island, the Narragansett Brewing Company was founded in 1888 by six business men of German origin. Two years later, the brewery was built, and George Wilhelm of Berlin Germany was appointed Brew master. During the next 20 years, Narragansett Brewery blossomed into the largest Brewery in New England. In 1914, they expanded their business further to include the largest and most hygienic bottling system in New England. They were granted a license by the U.S. Government that would allow them to continue to sell beer through Prohibition for “medicinal purposes” only. (Anderson, 1988)

Anheuser-Busch “is among the global company’s largest and most technologically capable breweries” (About, n.d.). On Anheuser-busch.com, you can find a lot of information about the company and their products. The headquarters of Anheuser Busch is located at One Busch Place St. Louis, MO 63118 (About, n.d.). The most known beer families that they produce are the Budweiser and bud light Family. There are numerous brands that Anheuser-Busch produces aside from Budweiser and Bud light. Initial searching for Bud Light Company because most of my family is enthralled by this beer, and upon further researching the beer brand, it was surprising to find that it was actually owned and manufactured by another company, Anheuser-Busch, that also manufactured

Brand plays a key role in the beer-purchasing process, along with taste, price, special occasion,

By 1980 Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing, Pabst, and Stroh’s were the main four that made up nearly 80% of the market. By the mid-nineties it was down to three major players: Coors, Miller, and Anheuser-Busch. The beer industry includes packaging manufacturers, shipping companies, agriculture, and other businesses who depend on brewing. The American brewing industry employs approximately 1.66 million Americans today. There are generally three tiers of beer suppliers in the United States: domestic giants like Anheuser-Busch and Miller, importers, and craft brewers.

Boston Beer Company (BBC) has enjoyed much success with their craft beers with Samuel Adams as their main focus. Being the leader of this segment, overtopping five of their competitors combined (Exhibit 1), the company now must decide how to take advantage of the light beer market. Boston Lightship, their current light beer, had been a small contributor in BBC’s product line. Currently, it is facing dwindling sales with product volumes down from 12 000 cases per month to 3000 cases per month.

“raising the bar for better beer” Samuel Adams sets superior standards for quality craft beers. They insist that the world should only have the finest ingredients to make the best beer possible. They will travel the world to hand select the hops, barely, and other ingredients that go into each brew. Koch, is known for his annual hops selection trip to Bavaria. The hops farmer always would comment on when he would sniff of the hops is what drives him for success. In order to ensure that drinkers enjoy the freshness of Samuel Adams beer, the way the brewers intended. Koch would create an all-natural way of producing his beer. Everything being fresh, within date of expiration with no preservatives.

The next project was bottling Gordon Biersch signature beer and retailing it. This had three biggest challenges: this project was entirely Gordon’s baby and demanded time and attention; secondly the freshness of the bottled beer versus the freshly brewed was an issue for which they decided the beer would have a shelf life no longer than three months. Thirdly and the most exciting challenge was the head-to-head competition with other microbreweries and premium beers. Despite the tough competitive environment, Gordon Biersch aimed to achieve 11% of the market in three years (by 1996). This retail venture required huge investment, thus they decided to start small to prove to the investors that they could pull it off.

The Boston Beer Company, Inc., founded in 1984, is a leading brewer in United States, offering wide variety of high quality full-flavored, handcraftedbeers. It is distinctive due to the time-honored recipe of brewing and authentic, consistent quality of alcoholic beverages. Samuel Adams Boston Lager is the pride of BBC, regular handcrafted beer “stands for quality, inner self-worth, authenticity, and unique New England or Yankee toughness” ( Martin Roper, Chief Operating Officer). Unfortunately, the company experienced the failure of conquering light beer segment

The documentary shows how the two small beer entrepreneurs, Rhonda and Sam try to establish themselves in the beer industry and success in the high potential market. The film shows that the beer industry is governed by some difficult and outdated laws along with an oligopoly of the large brands. These large brands manipulate the beer industry by acquiring and buying off the smaller brands which they find competitive among the market. The small brewers thus face difficulties and barriers establishing themselves in the American beer industry. The big giants like the Coors Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch, and the Miller Brewing Company face challenge from the independent craft beer producers when these new brands are put on shelves; so they seek ways to prevent distribution and production of these small brands, which is harmful for the competition in the beer industry. Sam Calagione and Rhonda Kallman are considered as small entrepreneurs in the beer industry who struggle from the large brands, the difficult laws, and the less competitive but highly profitable

In order to stay on top of the industry, The Boston Beer Company needs to find new, innovative ways of being the most appealing craft beer available to the average consumer. While The Boston Beer Company offers many different varieties of seasonal beer, they should begin to shift their focus to year-round specialty beers, such as a line of regional flavors based on their consumer’s regional taste preferences.

The Boston Beer Company and Samuel Adams have both had a long history. Since the 1870s, six generations of the Koch family have been involved with beer. In the early 1980s, the seventh generations almost turned his back on the family business. After graduating from graduate school, Jim Koch wanted to stray always for the family business and seek a career in management consulting. After a short time in the consulting business, Koch decided that he just could not ignore his destiny to create a new, different beer. In 1984, Koch was on the search for a “better beer”. The only options at the time on the market were pale lagers from mass producers (Company), Koch decided there needed to be a change. In April 1985, Samuel Adams made in bar

Several attempts have been made by Boston Beer Company to continue on a growth streak but not all attempts have been successful. The main goals for Boston Beer Company are to increase revenue and continue growing in the industry. Boston Beer Company has had trouble growing as barriers of entry are low and competition is high. Even though the market has seen a slight upturn, however Boston Beer’s founder Jim Koch elaborates on the company’s dissatisfaction, “We are disappointed with our depletion trends in 2016, which have remained weak so far in 2017. These trends are affected by the general softening of the craft-beer category and cider category and a more challenging retail environment with a lot of new options for our drinkers”. (https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/22/boston-beer-finds-growth-the-hard-way.aspx)

Boston Beer, in response to consumers’ preference changes to more flavorful and bitter tasting brews, was founded in 1894. Boston Beer implements a “quality at any cost” strategy with a strong emphasis on product differentiation and implementing quality ingredients into its products. For instance, Boston Beer was the first company to employ a stamped freshness date on its bottles and ingredients are imported from around the world. Additionally, Boston Beer relies heavily on contract brewing to gain competitive advantages. Boston Beer’s contract brewing strategy results in lower overhead and transportation costs, as well as

The Adolph Coors Case Study proved the dedication and self-reliance Coors brings to the beer industry. Having overcome great adversity by surviving the prohibition years, Coors durability and sustainability are also complimentary points on the structure of the company. Coors is a family owned company that had humble beginnings in Colorado and within 100 years grew into a multimillion-dollar company. Coors’ controlled manufacturing process is a sign of their individuality in the beer industry, this was not an unknown fact, however, as they were receiving orders to ship Coors beer all across the nation as of 1972. The case study allowed an internal and external point of view, which was highly beneficial to properly analyze their upcoming problem within the company.