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Breckenridge Brewery

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Submitted By crescent2
Words 1604
Pages 7
Cresente G. Siglos Jr.
MBA 231- StratMan
Brewing Change at Breckenridgre Brewery
Summary of the Case
Back in the 1980s, founder Richard Squire was your typical ski bum – with one significant difference. He had a knack for making extraordinary home brews. For years, only his closest friends were able to enjoy his creations, but it didn’t take long for Richard to realize that his talents needed to be shared with the world. Craft Brewing represented a “blend of art and science” where focus was on variety, freshness, and quality. By only using the purest and finest ingredients, no adjuncts, and no pasteurization, these brewers felt that the quality of craft beers stood apart from the mass production of other more prominent beers.
In 1994, Ed Cerkovnik joined Breckenridge Brewery as a 50/50 partner. Most of the people at Breckenridge Brewery agreed that Ed was “brilliant” and looked to for leadership.” Since his arrival at Breckenridge Brewery, Ed had provided legal counsel, credibility with various sources of financing, as well as deals structuring and negotiating skills, and had been looked to as the unofficial COO of the company. Ed had been a partner in the law firm that represented Breckenridge Brewery when he decided to make the move from law to business. Richard provided a great deal of vision and creativity while Ed provided discipline and strong analytical skills.
Ed’s first tasks were to consolidate ownership, raise new capital, and solidify license and development agreements within the increasingly complex structure of the company. To simplify the complex ownership structure, Richard and Ed created Breckenridge Brewery Holding Company (BHIC) as an umbrella company that would eventually own all the physical and intellectual property, trade rights, and trade dress for Breckenridge Brewery and its various products.
Richard’s Vision was two tiered. It included fresh brewed beer with the “Colorado Mystique” as well as a growing chain of Brewpubs that Richard saw as America’s Brewpub.
From 1994-1995, sales in the craft beer segment grew by 51% and they grew another 26% in 1996. However, by 1997, the growth curve for craft beer started to flatten and growth in shipments was expected to be less than 10% for the year as a whole.
As for the Brewpub, cash flow operations as a whole has been negative, due in part to the expenses of adding both brewing capacity and staff, and also to heavy start up and market entry expenses in new states and for new brewpubs. Most brewpubs were struggling to turn a profit and most were in deeply in the red with some units ended up over-staffed and over-spent.
All in all in 1997, the company experienced some significant disappointments. Of greatest concern restaurant revenues were below expectations, and costs were higher, leaving the company with a significant loss.
Point of View:
Richard Squire, Founder and President of Breckenridge
Statement of the Problem
How Should Breckenridge Brewery manage the company’s rapid growth and help address the company’s performance problem, specifically on the Brewpub side of the business.
Objectives
Short Term
To be able to help Breckenridge Brewery in analysing its current performance problem in 1997
Long Term
To strategically guide the company in its continuing rapid growth
Areas of Consideration
Wholesale Beer Business * Brewing Beer is the foundation of Breckenridge Brewery and is what they do best. * The beers were brewed in state of the art equipment in a facility that had been designed to maximize its efficiency, in spite of the higher costs of premium ingredients and relatively smaller scale at which Breckenridge beers were produced. * Industry observers expected craft brewers to continue to grow faster than the large breweries and to ultimately account as much as 10% of the American beer market, compared to their 1996 share of 2.8%.
Brewpub Business * Brewpubs were a part of the craft brewing industry, they were also part of the much larger restaurant industry, which had 1996 sales of $320 billion overall, of which $104 billion comprised the full service segment. * Even though the restaurant business was considered highly competitive, and had a large failure rate compared to other businesses, nearly the instant profitability of the first Breckenridge Brewery and Brewpub convinced Richard that the Brewpub side of the business could be lucrative too. * The Brewpub was a deal oriented business, making a deal versus making a plan. The deal driven strategy had allowed the brewpub side of the business to grow rapidly, but in the direction of facility deals instead of strong demographic trends. * Each brewpub was a new venture where there was no template and limited consistency from one brewpub to the next.

Richard Squire * Richard grew up in New York and gone to work for his father’s garment business after graduating. He stayed in the garment industry for 20 years. * Richard’s greatest strength is centered on selling a product in which he passionately believes. He is charismatic and charming, brazen and somewhat intimidating. * He motivates people to believe in Breckenridge Brewery and to work together to a common goal. * Management skills – Richard can be impatient in dealing with people or ideas which he disagrees and he sometimes makes decisions abruptly without carefully communicating with those concerned. * During the company’s eight short years, Richard had brewed beer, licked labels, kept the books, set up distribution channels, hired and fired employees. One by one, Richard had hired a others to fill those roles, leaving him in late 1997 in a position of leadership with few specific responsibilities. * Richard wanted to be a “road warrior” for the company, and was on the road selling about 50% of the time. * Richard cautiously welcomed the idea of a new level of management and of sharing the success of the company. He wanted to find “somebody that can wow me” someone that will come in and take care of business, and take the company to the next level.
Ed Cerkovnik * He brought 10 years of business law experience when he joined. * Ed had watched securities and acquisitions deals come and go over the years and while he earned fees for legal services, he had never built any equity. * Ed began laying the foundation for the Breckenridge Holding Company, to bring all assets under common ownership. He blended a philosophy incorporating business and law, developing an ability to assess the risks and opportunities on both sides, to structure negotiations, and to make tough deals work. * According to Ed, “I can build this thing, but I do not know how to run it. I don’t have the skills to run a restaurant company. We’ve come to a point where we needed someone else, someone with a set of managerial skills that neither Richard nor I possess.”
Alternative Courses of Action
1. Give up the Restaurant Side of the Business or the Brewpubs and focus on Microbreweries.
2. Hire a new CEO to create sound strategies in managing both the Microbreweries and Brewpubs of Breckenridge Brewery
3. Hire a consultant that can help Breckenridge Brewery in managing the business strategically. Conclusion and Recommendation
Strategic leadership is the ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, and empower others to create strategic change as necessary. Top-level managers play a critical role in firms as they are charged with formulating and implementing strategies effectively. The strategic decisions made by top-level manager’s influence how the firm is designed and whether or not goals will be achieved. Thus, a critical element of organizational success is having a top management team with superior managerial skills.
I recommend alternative course of action #2, which is to Hire a new CEO to create sound strategies in managing both the Microbreweries and Brewpubs of Breckenridge Brewery. Ed and Richard felt that the company enjoyed extraordinary potential, but both of them lack the right mix of managerial skills to ensure that its potential would be realized. They should hire a person that has the experience, vision and leadership skills required to grow our business and move it to the next level. The Company is now at the point where the founders need to pass the baton to a proven professional who combines multi-unit casual dining restaurant experience with brand development expertise.
Proposed Strategic Action Plan
1. Identify the Target Market – based on the 1996 survey of the National Restaurant Association they discovered that 18.9% of consumers with incomes of $50,000 plus ordered more craft beer than in 1994. Consumers in the Generation X group, or those between the ages of 21 and 34 were more likely to purchase a handcrafted beer than those over the age of 55. Based on this information and other sources, we can identify that the Breckenridge target market as individuals who were upper-middle class, well-educated, interested in outdoor recreation, and between the ages of 24 and 45.
2. Increase the product line to keep up with the ever changing tastes of their target market. This will increase the market share in the microbrewery industry and give the customers a more customized beer that cannot be imitated by the mass beer companies.
3. The service received at the brewpubs must be up to par for the affluent market. To achieve this, an intense training program will be implemented to give the best service and keep the customer coming back.
4. Geographic Focus – Should not continue to aggressively expand our geographical coverage for the beers and brewpubs, but should be more selective about where the beer is sold and the brewpubs are built.
5. Liquidity Ratio for 1997 – Current Ratio- 1.32 Acid Test Ratio - 1.54 Debt to Asset Ratio - .294

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