I’ve been writing these past months about what a great time it is to open a brewery because locations are now available and used equipment is cheap IF you have a good concept and a strong business system to back it up.
However, one of the reasons that this opportunity is available (other than the fact that there are too many breweries that are not unique, following a business system, and spent too much money in the first place) is because these breweries became stale. Not just breweries, really any business that has been around for a long time.
You see the key is, no matter how many years you’ve been open, you somehow need to stay fresh or your customers will get bored. But a word of caution: being innovative in your offerings is not the same thing as accessorizing. The latter is adding on pretty things that cost you money in your brewery, but do not actually help in gaining more sales or becoming more profitable. We’ve done this. In one long time restaurant we spent a whole lot of money adding copper to the hood of our open kitchen. Sure it looked good but did it bring anymore business? Nah.
But on the other hand, being innovative means trying new things in your brewery like special events, different styles of beers that not everyone else on the planet is brewing, different foods, innovative promotions. What can you do to the outside of your business that might look like an accessory, but actually catch peoples eyes as they drive by?
If you google cool ideas for breweries to attract more customers, you will find more examples than I care to write here. But what I’m talking about is actually doing something about it. Google it, brainstorm it and act on it. You simply can’t rest on your laurels like you used to be able to.
If you have a brewery that’s been open for a while, address this question now and do something about it.
If you are a brewery in planning:
Get a place that is a restaurant or existing brewery space available for rent.
Buy used equipment
Install my business system which truly is a work of exaggerated genius.
Come up with a cool concept that no one else is doing. Your hook, so to speak.
This is really worth spending some time talking about with your partner over a beer. You don’t want to get stuck in a rut, especially if you don’t even realize you are in a rut, in spite of dwindling sales. Act!
This feels like a particularly scary time to be planning/opening, with the difficulties so many existing breweries are facing with significant drops in revenue.
So many great points you make on how to craft a unique destination and run it profitably. I find myself analyzing every brewery we visit through that lens.
I've frozen my own brewery planning as we try to figure out housing and where we may want to move.
The thing that saddens me is that there seem far fewer people these days into the joy of visiting craft breweries. I very much understand that industries mature and the previous growth that allowed nearly any outfit to prosper for a time is over. But many people have moved on to other things and the group excitement I think has diminished.
Not for us. Bringing our dog to as many breweries as her lifespan will allow.