brewers self dist and other brands

[frigatebay]

Well I know self dist comes up a lot but I recently got dropped by my distributor and know have to go back to self dist. I'm now considering adding several brands to increase my portfolio and hopefully my cs/account. Any ideas how to balance/run a brewery/distributor?

Thanks
K

[einhorn]

If you think that you don't have time or knowledge for your sales & distribution, then you must find an employee/partner who will take on this portion of the business.

You sound like it's negative for your firm, but maybe it's a blessing in disguise.

On a side note, it would be interesting to find out why he dropped you and start improving that aspect of your business.

Best of luck!
Prosit!

[frigatebay]

I can handle the sales but not sure how to maintain focus on growing my brand while still trying to focus on offering customer all my brands. I was dropped due to inconsistent availability and QC issues. My brand is brewed under contract at another brewery and they had some Qc control issues and capacity issues. All have been fixed but unfortanetly too late to salvage my dist. relationship. I do believe it will be a blessing in the long run. in the short run it sucks.

K

[einhorn]

Tough situation - especially, as you stated, in your present daily business.

Without knowing the details of your business and area, it's hard to give any real advice. Nonetheless, I think you need to outsource everything that can be outsourced, at least for a short period of time until you get everything (IT, vehicels, order-taking, chasing down bad debt, etc.) figured out. Or, as I stated above, find someone who can help you do the "dirty work" and you take care of what's important. You'll need to prioritize. With your history of quality problems, and your radical change to self-distribution, it looks as though you really need to step back, analyze and find short- and long-term solutions to your business.