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Chance taken, leading to Spotted CowInterviewed by Nathan Leaf
President and co-owner of New Glarus Brewing Co. Age: 46 Family: Husband Dan, daughters Nicole and Katharine Personal background: Born in Milwaukee, grew up in Eau Claire, Minneapolis, Chippewa Falls, Colorado and Montana Education: Attended Carroll College (Helena, Mont.) studying psychology Professional background: Owned a variety of businesses in the arts and antiques. How Deb Carey ended up back in Wisconsin: Deb and Dan Carey met in Montana, where Deb went to high school and where Dan moved from his native San Francisco to start a brewery. After stops that included Portland, Ore., and Fort Collins, Colo., where Dan worked for Anheuser-Busch, the Careys decided to start their own brewery in New Glarus. About New Glarus Brewing Co.: Founded in 1993; 32 employees; sales of $8.5 million in 2005; projected sales of $9 million to $10 million for 2006; projected production of 50,000 barrels in 2006; best selling beer is Spotted Cow. The company is in the middle of a $19 million expansion project but considered moving out of New Glarus after a disagreement over tax incentives for the project, the assessment of the new facility and its desire to connect to Alliant Energy rather than the municipal utility. A compromise was reached in August to keep the company in New Glarus. Q. How did you and Dan decide to leave Anheuser-Bush to open your own brewery? A. I wanted to come back to Wisconsin. And we were looking for a job for him. But the thing is, in the craft industry, brewers in general are not paid well. It's hard, physical labor and the owners generally make a lot of money. And the guy's a workaholic. So I'm thinking "We can try to find someone to partner with him." But it was always the same story. "If you do all the work, I'll take all the money." So finally I just thought the only way this is going to happen is if I do it. So Dan and I started working on a business plan. I did the verbiage for it. He did the numbers for materials and grain handling. Q. Why did you choose Wisconsin? A. We were researching numbers and discussing concepts and things. And I was looking at the demographics for a lot of different areas. I had looked at the Fox Valley; Bellingham, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Colorado, like Boulder. Trying to see where a brewery would hit. And I did decide that Wisconsin was a good state. Q. How did you narrow it down to New Glarus? A. Dan was like "It's all nice. But you know, all the towns look the same." He'd driven through Mount Horeb and Sun Prairie and things, and he was really taking off down to Monroe to look at the (Huber) brewery. And he stopped here for gas. So then he called and said "Oh, I'm in this town and you would really like it. It's just like Aying." We'd lived in Germany together in Aying. And (New Glarus had) this building, an old abandoned warehouse built during the Vietnam War as a plastics factory. So we met with the guy who owned it and I'm pitching him on what I'm going to be doing and he came on as our first investor. He traded us stock for occupation of the building. Q. Where did you come up with the start-up money? A. When we were researching things we found some equipment that was for sale at a (Small Business Administration) foreclosure sale at a brewpub in Appleton. And I started bidding on it. And Dan is like "We don't have any money, you can't do this." And I said "I'm going to sell the house." "You haven't sold it yet." "I will sell it." To me it seemed very logical at the time. In retrospect, I don't know why it seemed logical, it just did. Q. But it all came together? You were able to sell the house and get the seed money? A. It did all come together. I sold the house in two weeks. I had organized an open house and sold it myself. Q. How much more money did you need to raise beyond your $40,000 of seed money and how did you get it? A. My initial start-up for this business was just about $400,000. That is the most bizarre story too since Dan had worked for so many people helping them start breweries, I called them and said "We're going to start a brewery and how did you raise your money?" So the first guy I talked to ... says "Deb, Dan's a really talented brewer. I know you're good at business. You just write a business plan and trust me, people will find you." And I was so pissed off. ... And I'm thinking OK, that was a big blow off. So I called another guy and ... same thing. He's like "No, really, that is what you do. You write the business plan and trust me, there are people with money looking for investments and word will get out and they will find you." And I thought, this makes no sense whatsoever. So I called another guy and it was the same story. So, I wrote a business plan. Three successful brewers that we respected had all said the same thing. ... So it was just like the guys said. I mean, we're here in this little town. They've got a newspaper. They ran a story right away. There are these crazy people and moving into town to start a brewery. And then the next thing you know the (Wisconsin) State Journal finds out. ... So many people read that article. That's what really brought it together. Because up until then I don't think I had $200,000. And that really finished it. Q. How much beer did you make that first year? A. 3,000 barrels. Q. And how did you do financially? A. We broke even. And we thought that was pretty good. Q. Did you expect that? A. Not really. Because everything I had read said you have to plan on losing money for the first two years. But we were really tight. And I think other people would have lost money. Because who can live on $16,000 a year? Q. That's what you took home the first year? A. Yeah. And no health insurance. And we're both down here 24-7 from 5 in the morning till 10 at night scrubbing floors. Q. Why do you think Spotted Cow has become such a popular beer? A. Well, I think it's a very approachable beer style. I mean, for one, it's very drinkable. It's easy, it's interesting, it's unfiltered, it's a complex range of flavors. A little bit sweet -- there's kind of an apricot thing happening. A little bit bready and kind of crisp on the end. So it's a pretty approachable beer. But from the marketing standpoint, what I was trying to do with that beer -- and I do think I hit it on the head but it was really scary at the time -- I wanted the consummate Wisconsin beer, that no matter where you were from, if you saw this from across the room, you would know that somebody in Wisconsin made that beer. ... I thought "I bet people come to Wisconsin and they say 'What's up with all these spotted cows?' " It occurred to me how unusual our big herds of cows would seem to someone else. And it just struck me as funny. And I was laughing and Dan was driving and I said "Spotted cow, that's funny. I'm going to name a beer spotted cow." And he's just like "Uh huh, dear." ... It just stuck with me. Q. What was the initial response to the beer? A. When we came out with it, there was a lot of resistance. I mean serious resistance. I had a wholesaler, somebody who's important to me in a big market, who would not pick up the beer because they said "You do not expect us to put something like Spotted Cow on the same sales sheet as Budweiser, do you?" ... My guys in Madison were more used to me so they went along with it but even they were like "Do you want to do this? Deb, can you really see a guy walking up to a bar and ordering a Spotted Cow?" And I'm like "Yeah!" But in my mind I was thinking "This is either going to be a huge hit or a total flop." Q. Why do you think you understand the beer business? A. Because my husband and I met when we were 23 and so my entire life I was listening to Dan. ... And all the while in my mind, because I had all these other businesses where I had the arts and the antiques, in my mind I'm thinking "Well, that was stupid" or "That was smart." Because our whole lives are about beer and people starting breweries, and then you watch them. And then you start to think things like "Why did this brewery go and this one doesn't?" Q. Where is the brewery headed? A. I get asked this a lot. And in general I think of this as a boy question. Because it means they're looking for numbers and they like to hear "How many states are you going to be in? How big are you going to be?" So you're going to get a girl answer, which is that I see this brewery as becoming part of the fabric of Wisconsin. And I think we will continue to be good neighbors and brew world-class beer. And then I don't know what that means in regards to numbers. And that makes most business people kind of crazy. But I don't really care. That's not my goal. We're bigger now than we wanted to be. nleaf@madison.com madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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