This assessment is designed to help you establish where your brewery stands with respect to the success benchmarks we’ve established across the key functions of the brewery.
The output of the Brewery Benchmark Assessment (BBA) distills a decade of data and collective wisdom down into clear, actionable recommendations that you and your team can use to make those intelligent, hard, game-changing decisions we speak so highly of. It’s a snapshot of where you’ve come from, where you are today, and where you could be headed in the future based on the best information available.
How It Works
The BBA is an injection of our expertise into the brewery at the highest level, designed to rapidly assess that current state of the brewery across its key functions: finance, operations, taproom, distribution, leadership. Owners and leadership teams who we take through this process most typically encounter:
- Information about the performance of their brewery they’ve never been exposed to.
- An objective 3rd party perspective on viable options that assist in difficult leadership team decisions.
- Exposure to a new way of thinking about the future of their brewery and the actions they need to take to get there.
Please be warned: this is a dose of (sometimes unsavory) truth that can be jarring and disorienting. That’s also exactly why our clients find it so valuable.
"We had a true apples-to-apples comparison to other breweries that was invaluable to validating our business direction in response to the challenges of 2020. This is feedback and benchmarking you just can't get anywhere else."
Read the full case study
Option 1: Remote Assessment
Our remote assessment option is delivered digitally, through file exchange and Zoom meetings, and is the fastest way to gain access to our consulting team. The assessment process includes:
- A Brewery Assessment Intake which covers the key functions as well as the context
surrounding your history, market, current issues, and vision. We’ll begin our assessment once these materials are received and identify some key areas of discussion to address. - An initial 30-minute call with our consulting team to clarify details, ask follow-up questions, and gain additional context on top of the analysis performed on the intake materials.
- A Rolling 12 Financial Analysis to take a big-picture look at how the brewery has grown amongst its various revenue streams, identify successes, and uncover risks.
- Benchmarking against our compiled industry data set with key metric reporting on categories such as Labor, Occupancy, Advertising, EBITDA, etc.
- A Leadership Team Assessment, org chart gap analysis, and a customized set of recommendations developed to address key decisions you and your team have identified ahead of time.
Once the assessment is complete, you’ll receive:
- A presentation deck that includes the full assessment along with our recommendations.
- A 60-minute review call + recording to discuss, answer questions, and outline next steps.
Qualifications
This assessment is the right fit for breweries producing more than 1,000 BBLs annually (however smaller breweries on a rapid growth trajectory can also benefit). You’ll also need at least 12 months of financial and production data in order for us to assess against our performance benchmarks.
Timing
Assuming we receive materials from you in a timely fashion, remote assessments typically take 2-4 weeks start to finish.
Pricing
$5,000 sent with the intake request to initiate the assessment.
Option 2: On-Site Assessment
Our on-site assessment option includes everything outlined in the remote assessment, and is delivered both digitally, through file exchange and Zoom meetings, as well as a 2-day deep-dive with one of our SBS Brewery Consultants at the brewery. The expanded on-site scope includes:
- Two full days with a SBS Brewery Consultant. They’ll speak to the owners, leadership and key employees, and patronize the location unannounced to collect insights.
- An expanded Operation Review with a focus on back office processes and the sales team.
- An expanded Values Assessment with a focus on company perception and how the brewery’s strategy aligns with the local market dynamics.
- An expanded Leadership Team Assessment with a focus on roles, fit, and accountability.
- An expanded Brand Assessment with a focus on market position, portfolio, and expansion opportunities.
Once the assessment is complete, in addition to the standard deliverables, you’ll receive an additional month of follow-up guidance to check in on implementation and next steps.
"He pulled everyone aside and spent a whole day listening to what our market is like, what people love about working here, and where they see the brewery going. Chris went deep into our business, our accounting, our company, our culture, and came out with a plan. He saw where we were hurting. He saw where we were winning. He did the work. And everything he did was helpful in trying to figure out the next steps of our brewery."
Read the full case study
Qualifications
This assessment is typically the right fit for breweries producing more than 5,000 BBLs annually (however smaller breweries on a rapid growth trajectory can also benefit). You’ll also need at least 12 months of financial and production data in order for us to assess against our performance benchmarks, as well as the ability to block off two full days in you and your team’s calendar to interact with and host Chris during his visit.
Timing
Assuming we receive materials from you and are able to schedule the visit in a timely fashion, on-site assessments typically take 2 months to complete, start to finish. (However, some aspects of the assessment are delivered digitally prior to the visit.)
Pricing
$25,000 with 50% sent up-front with the intake request to initiate the assessment, and 50% billed upon completion of the on-site visit.
Next Steps
If you’re ready to explore whether our Brewery Benchmark Assessment is right for your brewery, head over to our contact page to share some information about your brewery and schedule a short discovery call to determine whether we’re a fit to work together.