Just wondering if there is anyone who could offer advice/their experience with growth.
We started as a 3bbl brewhouse with (1) 3bbl uni and (3) 7 bbl unis. We operate primarily as a production brewery, with approx 1/4 total volume coming out as growler fills. We are in a city of ~70,000 but we service an area of easily 250,000. we have 9 restaurants/bars in town with 12 taps, and can likely get on at another 9 once we have the production for it. We just started bottling bombers. We started selling in February of this year and have experienced great reception. We actually are installing a 10 bbl uni to help keep up this week.
Our plan was to grow naturally, we paid out of pocket for our current setup and would like to have some money in the bank before we expand. We would then use our 3bbl brewhouse with a couple unis as a pilot system and upgrade to a 15-30bbl system with a new location, taphouse/venue combo.
right now we are getting a little cramped (1400 sq ft) but are wondering about the "golden time" to plan for our expansion. If we need to keep up with demand, is it worth purchasing a couple more 10bbl tanks and hiring more staff (its me and 1 part timer currently) or would it be better to be constantly low on beer until we expand? I dont think we will run out and lose taps at our current rate, but we cant get into any more bars until we make more beer. We are also operating in the black, but will not have enough equity to pay for new building/equipment for a year or two.
Any advice from others who grew their production about 10x on timing/how to go about it?
Thanks
We started as a 3bbl brewhouse with (1) 3bbl uni and (3) 7 bbl unis. We operate primarily as a production brewery, with approx 1/4 total volume coming out as growler fills. We are in a city of ~70,000 but we service an area of easily 250,000. we have 9 restaurants/bars in town with 12 taps, and can likely get on at another 9 once we have the production for it. We just started bottling bombers. We started selling in February of this year and have experienced great reception. We actually are installing a 10 bbl uni to help keep up this week.
Our plan was to grow naturally, we paid out of pocket for our current setup and would like to have some money in the bank before we expand. We would then use our 3bbl brewhouse with a couple unis as a pilot system and upgrade to a 15-30bbl system with a new location, taphouse/venue combo.
right now we are getting a little cramped (1400 sq ft) but are wondering about the "golden time" to plan for our expansion. If we need to keep up with demand, is it worth purchasing a couple more 10bbl tanks and hiring more staff (its me and 1 part timer currently) or would it be better to be constantly low on beer until we expand? I dont think we will run out and lose taps at our current rate, but we cant get into any more bars until we make more beer. We are also operating in the black, but will not have enough equity to pay for new building/equipment for a year or two.
Any advice from others who grew their production about 10x on timing/how to go about it?
Thanks
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