Author name: Chris Farmand

Recently, we have seen the M&A space for craft breweries in what I call a low boil. Meaning, it’s still hot, but people are talking less and less about it. Typical deals have been less risky than we have seen in the past. Beer groups are making minority interest investments in US craft beer. A […]

Starting a brewery is hard work. In the beginning and even up through the first 2 years everyone involved is wearing multiple hats, working long hours and feels like the work is never finished.  During this grind performance metrics last thing on anyone’s mind. Successful breweries are placing equipment performance metrics on the top of

PRODUCT. BRAND. MARKET. SELL. STRATEGY. EXECUTE. MEASURE. HACK. All bullshit aside, let’s forget about selling the brewery for a minute. Why don’t we focus on making it through this “umph.” I define a “umph” as the leveling off in an industry cycle. It happened in the 90’s, my paper talks about it, it will happen

I had three inquiry calls last week.  One question I always ask is, where are your distributing?  All three breweries used the term “hyper-local.”  Two of them asked about a strategy to move past “hyper-local” once they saturate “hyper-local.”   As many of you know dominating 30-50 miles from the brewery is a criteria for

I recently wrote a post about Gross Profit vs Gross Margin, it was nice.  Piggybacking off that topic I want to explain the differences between Markup vs Margin.  More specifically, what it looks like at different points in the supply chain.  In the margin vs markup game, margin wins….always.  Distributors and Retailers work off margin.

Since taproom pricing is a personal mission of mine, I thought I would lay out 3 reasons to increase your on-premises pricing.   Average price per pint in the US is $3.62.  Are you above or below that?  Jeez, I hope above.  I will assume you are at $4.00 or $4.50 per pint.  What are

Q: How important is operational process for my brewery? A: As polite as I can say it, if you are not growing, you’re dying. Before I get preachy on you let me define growth: increasing profit. Dude, the question was about process, how did you get to profit? Well they go together. Growth (profit) is

Since taproom pricing is a personal mission of mine, I thought I would lay out 3 reasons to increase your on-premises pricing.   Average price per pint in the US is $3.62.  Are you above or below that?  Jeez, I hope above.  I will assume you are at $4.00 or $4.50 per pint.  What are

A common question I get is: what is the quickest path to profitability for a brewery. We all know the answer is the taproom. The other day I got a curveball to that question.  A successful software developer asked: What is the quickest way to profitability while investing the least amount of money.  My reply

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