Ballast Point Files Paperwork for IPO

I buy plenty of beer in California that isn't brewed in California and it costs the same price as the other side of the country. Last time I checked dogfish, bells, victory, boulevard etc. aren't double the price. Plus, sounds like the other ballast point beers aren't double.

 

Different companies have different arrangements. I can't even send you beer for free...so how can palates upon palates do so?

Maybe every case of beer from Ballast Point costs X amount to move across the country, but Ballast Point doesn't apply them across all the labels the same to keep Sculpin's price down as it is higher already - not to mention that is the main beer associated with the brand, so they probably want people to buy it more.

 

Sounds good.

 

Uh oh, we're not going to meet earning estimates. Better raise Sculpin prices again. Institutional investors are demanding we find value by embracing "industry best practices." I know, let's do like Carlos Brito and tell our employees they can't have fun. On the other hand, that ticker symbol is pretty cool.

 

Maybe so. But their other offerings are very good.

 

For all of you arguing about Sculpin pricing, looking at Sculpin pricing nationally, there's no chain grocery retailer (who sells scan data, I generally focus on food retailers to get the best sample) which has it for under $13.99 (New Orleans has it at $9.25, but I suspect that's a data issue, not that you can actually go buy Sculpin for that price anywhere, or it's an extremely large retailer dumping stock cheap)

One thing I find interesting is that the distance liquid travels doesn't seem to have a ton to do with pricing. For example, large market in the PNW is $14.99, while a medium market on the eastern seaboard (think Carolinas) is $13.99. Another example, Boston is one of the lowest prices in the country while Vegas is $1.50 higher. A follow up, consider how many cases you can get in a truck load of beer. If you can get 90 cases/pallet and 20 pallets on a truck (rough estimates from last time I looked up how much beer you can shove into a semi), that's 7,200 six packs. I don't charter much cross country freight, but I'm going to guess that $2/mile is pretty generous, so that's only ~$4,500 in freight charges or 63 cents a six pack. (Feel free to debate my numbers, but the concept is pretty reasonable)

I understand the frustration with $13.99-$15.99 six packs, simply because I can buy a lot of great IPAs for $9.99 locally. Do I occasionally make the decision to splurge? Sure, but the availability of quality substitutes at a lower price keeps me away from Scuplin 6 packs.

 

Yup and by doing an IPO and going public there's no way they get bought out. Just too much for ABinBEV to throw down after they are public.

 

Nothing but if they are only putting say 25% of all the stock for sale it doesn't matter.

 

I normally order any good IPA/DIPA on tap, ranging from alpine stuff, to ballast point, to cellarmaker and fieldwork to sours from rare barrel and almanac. Most places 12-16oz will cost $6-7. Sours range from $7-10 usually for 12 oz pour tops.

I had a friend who kept telling me it was too expensive to buy sculpin 6ers, finally saw the light when I explained we pay almost triple for one sculpin at craft beer bars. Might as well get a 6 pack, it's a much better deal than bombers.

It's still fun to go out for beers with friends but I try to do more drinking at home these days.

 

Yeah but you are willing to pay $6-7 for draft beers other than Sculpin but not buy Sculpin? I am confused.

I will pay $6-7 for a pint of Sculpin at my local beer bars since they are priced similarly to other IPAs on tap (e.g., Union Jack, Two Hearted, Stone IPA, etc.). When it comes to packaged beer I will buy 6-packs of these other beers since I can get them for around 10 bucks while the Sculpin 6-packs cost around $16-17. Comparing packaged beer to draft prices is not the proper metric. The proper metric is how much does a 6-pack of Stone IPA compare to a 6-pack of Sculpin; this is a true 1:1 comparison.

Cheers!

 

Paying off debts does not affect net income, except for the interest portion of the debt. My guess? They raised prices, they saved on economies of scale on ingredients and costs from growth, the result goes to the bottom line.

I love Sculpin. It costs me $150 a sixtel to buy where I can get a sixtel of say Dirtwolf for almost half that. Sculpin is overpriced, as is much of the BP lineup. But damn, it's good and thus the growth, people pay it.

 

not sure we could possibly disagree more

 

what, exactly, are you basing that on?

my company is publicly-owned and has seen its most creative, innovative years since the IPO in mid 2011

 

lol, seriously, what are you basing this on, besides your anti-publicly traded soapbox?

 

I just dont see how I could compare stone IPA to sculpin, its not even in the same ballpark for me, thus why I rather pay more. Same goes with union jack.

 

I recognize that this is just one consumer (one data point) but it sure makes sense to me that Ballast Point is making big bucks because folks are willing to pay big bucks to buy there beer.

Ballast Point gets money from me when I buy pints of their beer at TJs Everyday. Ballast Point does not see a dime from me with respect to packaged beer. I opt to buy other packaged beer since I can't personally justify paying a difference like twice as much; Sculpin is not twice as good to my palate.

Cheers!

 

Needless to say but you and I have differing ballparks.

Please keep paying Ballast Point prices; they need your money to maintain their outrageous net incomes.

Cheers!

 

Yes, the interest payments on the debt, not paying off the debt itself. Good catch!

So you've paid more for a sixtel than you used to? I've not bought much the last few years so haven't seen any price increases.

 

Folks are willing to pay big bucks for many beers! BP is just one data point here. Brew a serviceable DIPA, package it into a 22 oz bottle and slap a $9-10 price tag on it - tons of people are scooping these up without a second thought (nevermind that a Sculpin sixer price per ounce equates to a $5 bomber ). It's a great time to be a brewery!

 

Do you have actual examples. Companies rise and fall, but I can not think of one that you can attribute directly to the IPO.