Brewing Change at Breckenridge Brewery Essay -- Case Study, Business M

Brewing Change at Breckenridge Brewery INTRODUCTION Breckenridge Brewery is a craft brewer which was established by Richard Squire. Richard turned his passion for brewing good home made beer into a lucrative business. In 1989, he started his first Breckenridge Brewery and Pub at Breckenridge which has a production capacity of 3,000 barrels per year. During his first two years in business, he sold out the brewery's annual maximum capacity. He opened a second brewery and brew pub in Denver in November 1992. By the end of 1994, even this brewery failed to satisfy the increased demand and plans were made for a new brewery which opened in May 1996 in Denver. This brewery had a maximum output of 60,000 barrels per year after expansion. In the mid 1990s, Breckenridge Brewery started expanding eastwards and their first brewpub outside Colorado opened in Buffalo, New York in December 1995. Five other brewpubs were subsequently opened in other states. However, from its opening till 1997, the brewpubs have not turned in a profit although the main brewery was making money. Richard believes that his vision for the company, a two-tiered concept with a top microbrewery producing fresh, quality beer and a chain of brewpubs, has potential. However, due to the more complex nature of running a restaurant, he believes that the company has yet to figure out how to run its restaurant business profitably. The company is now at the crossroads. Richard is in a dilemma as to whether to continue the brewpub business or to give it up and just concentrate just on brewing beer. He is also unsure about bringing in new leadership to help solve the company?s performance problems. THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT A firm?s external environment is divided into three major areas : the general, industry and competitor environments. Below is an elaboration in further detail regarding the firm?s opportunities and threats in these three environments. Opportunities in the General Environment The United States of America has a population of 260 million people. This is a big market with substantial purchasing power. As of 1997, Breckenridge Brewery has only expanded eastwards and the west side of the country is relatively untouched. According to Exhibit 2 in the case study, there were only distributors in 32 states and that leaves a potential to sell to the other 19 states as w... ... a year. To cater to increased demand, the company can consider acquiring other breweries that are going out of business and that will see substantial savings on capital investments. It will be advantageous for the company if they can project themselves as responsible corporate citizen and an environment friendly company. Social enrichment schemes, recycling schemes and educational funds can be initiated to cater to this cause and long term goal. CONCLUSION Breckenridge Brewery has a strong business in brewing beer. Due to the lack of professional management expertise and venturing into the wrong business, the company has not been able to turn in a profit. It is important that the company try to resolve these problems as soon as possible. Only then, will the company get out of the red and hopefully, move on to a higher level. Works Cited: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson (2005), Strategic Management : Competitiveness and Globalisation, 6th Edition, Thompson & South-Western. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thompson and Strickland (2002), Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, 13th Edition, Chicago Irwin Publications. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Yip, G.S (2003), Total Global Strategy, Prentice Hall.