Coors Brewing Company Case Study

The Stroh Brewing Company was founded in 1850 in Detroit, MI. During prohibition the company produced soft drinks and ice cream. On February 8, 1999, the

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

Two issues are present in the case. The first is a decision on what research should be conducted by Manson and Associates to allow Larry Brownlow to estimate the feasibility of a Coors beer distributorship for a two-county area in Delaware. This issue is evident, even stressed, throughout the case. The second issue is a decision on whether or not the distributorship is feasible or, in other words, a go/no-go decision by Brownlow regarding his application. This issue is largely implicit in the case.

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.

Even though their shipping costs were twice the industry’s, average shipping costs would have been much more had they attempted to enter other states. Besides, Coors made up for the inefficiency with the scale of their plant, the largest in the nation. The location lent itself well to Coors’ ability to differentiate its product. For example Coors was brewed using “pure Rocky Mountain spring water.” Coors had a great opportunity to serve an underserved geographical market. Seven of 24 million barrels sold in the region had to be imported from production facilities outside of the region, and Coors’ Colorado facility was more central to the area than the three other closest facilities in Missouri, Texas, and Wisconsin. Coors had the second lowest production cost per barrel in the industry, in spite of their claim of the most expensive raw material costs. Their cost advantage stemmed from the industry’s highest capacity utilization, economies of scale through the country’s largest brewery, single product focus, and the industry’s fastest packaging lines. Matching their low production cost was the lowest advertising cost relative to the industry. The mystique that had been built up about Coors and their differentiating, all-natural appeal allowed them to get away with lower advertising costs than average for the industry. Coors differentiated their product, both in the

The situation facing Mr. Larry Brownlow is a tough one. He is young with minimal money to work with. This shows that he must be careful and research all of his investing activities closely. The problem that faces him is deciding if opening a Coors Beer brewery in his area of Delaware is a profitable investment. The beer is obviously not widely carried in the area so that makes the situation that much harder. He has less information to work with. This is why he contacted the Manson Research Firm. That presents the second problem. The firm will do the research to help do a feasibility analysis, but the information is not cheap. Larry is working with about two weeks until the deadline to submit an application for distributorship. He

In 1873, Adolph Coors built a small brewery called Coors in Golden, Colorado. Now, as of 2014, this small brewery has become the largest single brewery facility in the world. Over the years, the company has expanded their market and has become the third largest brewer in the United States.

Estimates of fixed costs are reasonably straightforward and are given in the case (p.280), a total of $250,000 ($160,000+$90,000).

Mr. Larry Brownlow needs to decide whether or not to apply for the Coors distributorship in southern Delaware.

The New Belgium Brewing's tremendous growth to become the nation's third-largest craft brewery and the ninth-largest overall is a great reason for wanting to open the third brewery in its Fort Collins and Asheville locations. When indicating further interesting directions of the future research on the competitive advantage, it is worth considering the relationship between the competitive advantage, the strategy of success, the durability or variability of the competitive advantage and the repeatability or durability of the success in the competitive struggle (Soloducho-Pelc p.278). As a Chief Operating Officer, I would take a list of pros and cons from the internal environment, customer environment, and external environment that help makes

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)

The Molson Coors Brewing company "was formed in 2005 by the merger of Molson of Canada, and US Brewer, Coors. The company is incorporated in the US and ownership is equally shared between the Molson and Coors Families" (Global Company Profile, 2015). The two headquarters of the company are located in Denver, Colorado, where the Coors family resides, and Montreal, Quebec, where Molson family takes residence. The Coors family decided to give Molson the first name in the brand because they have been in business longer than Coors have been (Raabe, 2004).

The Coors brewing industry had many ups and downs throughout its history dating back to its start in 1873 (Adolf Coors in the Brewing Industry). There were times of great growth and expansion that would get interrupted by numerous setbacks. Some were small and some led to extreme changes. It sounds similar to any type of business. However, the different generations of the Coors family seemed to find ways to usually compete with their competitors and maintain the success of the company. It was also very challenging. Different changes had to be made for each new obstacle that came their way. Over a century has gone by since its start in Golden, Colorado, and the business seems to still be available in stores around the world (Adolf Coors in the Brewing Industry).

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.

Keurig Green Mountain, previously owned by Keurig, Inc., was introduced in 1998. Beginning as a vision in the 70’s, the goal of the company was to solve a typical office problem; a full pot of coffee sitting, growing bitter, dense, and stale. The vision was a single cup coffee brewer. In 1992, a business plan was formed and partnerships were made. John Sylvan, the man with the plan, called in Peter Dragone, a former college roommate and director of finance at Chiquita, and Keurig was founded. But the vision and the plan were not enough. They needed funding. In order to quit making their coffee pods by hand and make their single coffee brewers more reliable, they sought the help Dick Sweeny to automate the manufacturing process while