‘Better Product’
Craft beer continues to require such hands-on sales calls.The segment occupies a niche in the U.S. beer market, with about6.5 percent market share, according to data compiled byBloomberg. Together, Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI),which sells more than 200 brands including Budweiser and Beck’s,and Miller Coors LLC, a 70-brand joint venture of London-based SABMiller Plc (SAB) and Denver-based Miller Coors Brewing Co., control about 80 percent of the U.S. beer market.
Boston Beer has 1.3 percent of the U.S. market, just behind DG Yuengling & Son Inc., the largest U.S.-owned brewing company with 1.5 percent share. Its owner — and Koch’s friend –Richard L. “Dick” Yuengling, has a fortune valued at more than$2.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg index.
“The Street generally likes underdogs like Boston Beer and the way that they are growing share by producing a better product,” said Kenneth Shea, a beverage industry analyst with Bloomberg Industries in Princeton, New Jersey. “The mass-produced, industrial brands tend to be bland and undifferentiated.”
To avoid tasting too similarly to his larger competitors,Koch samples every batch of beer the company produces and leads purchasing trips to Germany each year to buy hops, according to the company.