BrewDog Acquires Stone Berlin

I can only assume the director of that documentary didn't anticipate Stone's closing would predate the film's release. Kinda takes away the suspense...but also makes the new perspective interesting.

 

And at the 40 second mark Greg Koch states: “Ignorance is always been our strongest characteristic. Not knowing any better. Not good at not knowing any better.”

I am hopeful that Greg Koch is less ignorant today then he was in 2014 (or 2016 or…) and Stone Brewing will make more informed business decisions going forward.

Cheers!

 

Yes... if I was a producer or director on the project, I would demand a recut that at the very least acknowledges the events in a closing text endnote.

 

How about just shooting some new footage of Greg Koch saying “Whoops” and place it at the end of the film?

Cheers!

P.S. Or maybe have Greg Koch imitating Emily Litella and saying “Never mind”?

 

2016 has a decent discrepancy between the two numbers.

I get what he means, "we'll take risks".

But I would never invest in a company who's owner is proud of "not knowing any better".

 

Just want to toss my two cents in. It seems like this might have been an overall win for Stone. It doesn't sound like they lost money on this run, they have experience now with international expansion (including probably a much better grasp on assessing foreign markets), they introduced their beer to more Europeans (some of who surely fell in love), and they generated more buzz back home.

 

I don't know of anyone publicly who knows the financials behind the deal. Do you know something we don't?

 

I don't. And it is highly possible that they lost money I suppose I guess that I was just assuming (bad practice for sure) and what I really should have said was that it doesn't seem to have been a major failure. They were open for a few years and sold a fully retrofitted brewery to an established brewer so I am assuming that there wasn't a terrible loss and possibly even a slight gain.
For the record I generally agree with the mostly negative perspective on Stone's planning and execution on this project and haven't bought anything that wasn't a stout from them in a few years. I mostly just wanted to add some potential (and it seemed overlooked) up sides to this deal from Stone's perspective.
As much as I'm grumpy with their line up change over time and have never really liked their marketing, they do make solid beer and have done a lot to propel flavorful beer to the forefront in the US and I hope they continue to succeed

 

Having lived in Germany and had friends involved in historic preservation, I know (and others in the industry have confirmed) that costs can run *way* over expectations when dealing with projects such as the one Stone undertook. Again, I don't have numbers, but I'd have a hard time believing they didn't -- based on time delays etc --lose money. Maybe we will get the numbers someday.

 

ya fair enough. I don't really remember when this project was announced and didn't follow it by any means so I will take your word that it's highly possible they lost money. Do you know if the sale price of restored/updated historic buildings in germany reflect the typical cost of the remodel?

 

This interview just popped up on my feed...

https://www.hopfenhelden.de/ende-vo...1Q8UrDrPLQM3aYUnAay3Z3O0xbXRF_ziSSWyELXSM8bOY

 

You got it give Greg some Kudos as regards perseverance:

“Is there a new project that you will fall to, perhaps to overcome Berlin?

Honestly: I will continue to focus on Berlin. On Germany and on Europe. Our growth here is good. It's not like we did not succeed. It was just ten percent more complicated, more expensive, slower than expected. And we're talking about thirty different topics. We do not leave the German market. We keep the taproom in Prenzlauerberg, we distribute our beers here, we even continue to brew in Mariendorf. Brewdog is over the door, but it's still the facility we bought and designed, it's the people we trained who continue to brew our beer.”

Cheers!