![]() Schlitz responded by changing the meaning of ABF from "accelerated batch fermentation" to "accurate balanced fermentation." Rivals tried to trip Schlitz up by claiming that its ABF brewing method meant it was selling "green," or too-young beer. Market share was growing faster than at either of the other big two American brewers, Anheuser-Busch and Miller. ![]() Its profits-to-sales ratio and its utilization of its plant – in terms of capacity against actual production – were both substantially above the industry average. In 1973 Schlitz was able to boast that it had the most efficient breweries in the world, and it was carrying out a rapid expansion of its production capacity. Unfortunately, as commentators later pointed out, the steps from A to B and from B to C might have been tiny and unnoticeable, but the steps from A to M added up to a big leap.Īt first all seemed to be working. The ingredient alterations were meant to be made incrementally, Uihlein's belief apparently being that drinkers would not notice each slight change to the product. At the same time Uihlein instructed his brewers to begin cutting costs by using corn syrup to replace some of the malted barley used to make the beer, and by substituting cheaper hop pellets for fresh hops. The result was that Schlitz was now getting much more beer out of the same amount of plant, with all the boost in margins that meant. The decisions taken by the brewery's owners, the Uihlein family, to cope with their rival's dominance would eventually " salami slice" their company to death. The two brewers swapped the lead between them until 1957, when Budweiser went ahead permanently. The brewery prospered considerably under the Uihleins, springing back after Prohibition, and late in the 1940’s Schlitz became the best-selling brew in the United States – the Wisconsin brewer wrestling the title from Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser, the self-styled "King of Beers." The 1950’s saw a continuous assault from Anheuser-Busch to win back the crown of America's favorite. ![]() Control of the brewery was inherited by August Uihlein and his three brothers, who had joined him in the business. Then in 1875 Schlitz was drowned after the ship in which he was travelling on a voyage back to Germany struck rocks off the Scilly Isles. Over the next two decades the brewery grew to be one of the two or three biggest in Milwaukee. That same year Krug's 16-year-old nephew, August Uihlein, began working for the brewery. When Krug died in 1856, Schlitz took over the management of the brewery, marrying Krug's widow Anna two years later and changing the name of the business to his own. Two years later Krug hired Joseph Schlitz, another German immigrant, from Mainz, to be his bookkeeper. ![]() Schlitz's roots were in a Milwaukee restaurant started by 34-year-old August Krug, an immigrant from Bavaria, in 1848. Indeed, the company that now owns Schlitz, once "the beer that made Milwaukee famous," is currently telling drinkers that "our classic 1960's formula is back," the sub-text being that it "now tastes the way it did before we started disastrously mucking about with it 40 years ago, ruining the beer and wrecking the company along the way." Schlitz is held up as a dreadful warning of how not to do it. But that wouldn't be the way the people behind the Schlitz brand feel about it. You might think it would be good to have your company held up in business schools as a famous example. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |