Straw Brewery Company
The Stroh Brewery Company is a former American brewery in Detroit .
history
founding
The beginnings of the brewery lay in the inn in Kirn run by the Stroh family . In 1849, due to the tense political situation during the German Revolution , Bernhard Stroh decided to emigrate to the USA . He had learned the craft of brewing from his father .
At the age of 28, he opened a small brewery on Catherine Street in Detroit in 1850 . There he started the production of Pilsener , which had only gained popularity a few years earlier. He chose Lion's Head Brewery (also known as Lion's Crest Brewery or The Lion Brewing Company ) as the name and a lion from the Kyrburg near Kirn as the heraldic animal . The lion, the heraldic animal of the Wild and Rhine Counts , is still part of the company logo today. In 1865 he bought land and expanded the brewery. At first, Stroh went door to door in a cart to sell his beer. The peculiarity of the Stroh beer was that it was brewed in a copper kettle, which made the beer lighter but did not affect its taste.
After the death of his father, Bernhard Stroh Jr. took over the business. He changed the name to Bernhard Stroh Brewing Company and began selling the beer outside of Detroit. Thanks to technological innovations such as pasteurization and refrigerated trucks , straw beer could be distributed to Florida and Massachusetts . At the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 , Stroh-Pilsener was honored with a quality award.
Turn of the century and prohibition
In 1902 the name Stroh Brewery Company (also The Stroh Brewery Company ) was chosen. In 1908 Bernhard Stroh's brother, Julius Stroh, took over the management of the company. After visiting several European breweries, he decided to introduce a direct flame instead of steam as a heat source for the brewing process ("fire-brewing"). This process was advertised as a special quality feature in later marketing campaigns.
During the American prohibition the name was changed to The Straw Products Company . Instead of beer, malt beer , birch beer , lemonades , ice cream and ice cream were produced. After the end of Prohibition, these product lines were discontinued except for ice cream (Stroh's Ice Cream) and brewing operations were resumed. Julius Stroh died in 1939. His successor was his son, Gari Stroh. He remained in charge of the business until 1950 when his brother John took over.
National expansion during the 1960s
The straw brewery began to expand in the 1960s. The first acquisition was the Goebel Brewing Company , which was directly across from the Stroh brewery. The reason for the decision to expand nationwide was a state-wide strike in 1958, which encouraged national competitors to enter the Michigan market and severely weakened the position of local breweries. In particular, Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing Company fueled the competition with large-scale advertising campaigns in the battle for the top of the American beer market.
In 1968, Gari's son Peter became the new president after graduating from Princeton University . The company still felt the loss of large market shares due to the strike. Stroh decided to break with old traditions to create the nationwide market entry. For example, the 40-year collaboration with a local marketing agency was ended and a new one was hired under the direction of Murray Page. The tradition of the purely family business has also been softened: For the first time, outsiders, including from PepsiCo , were hired as managers. Stroh also introduced a light beer (Stroh's Light) .
Acquisition of Schlitz
The efforts paid off in the years to come: in 1973, Stroh was the eighth largest brewery in the USA . In 1978 straw beer was already being offered in 17 states with a total output of 6.4 million barrels per year. Since the 66-year-old brewery in Detroit only had a maximum capacity of seven million barrels, the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company , which failed to compete with the Miller Brewing Company , was bought up in 1980 .
Through this acquisition, the products Schaefer , Piels and Schaefer's Cream Ale were incorporated into the Stroh brewery. Straw now had a capacity of around 40 million barrels a year and had a distribution network in 28 states.
In 1982, Stroh took over the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company , making it the third largest brewery in the United States. Although Schlitz initially resisted the takeover, he eventually accepted the offer of $ 17 per share. The Department of Justice allowed the acquisition on condition that Stroh sell part of the Schlitz production facilities. In 1985 the old straw brewery was demolished.
Failure due to debt burden
In the following years it became apparent that straw with a slit had taken over. The high debt burden and declining sales made it difficult for the company to remain competitive. The introduction of new products such as an alcoholic fruit juice drink did not bring the desired success either. Another problem was the comparatively long development times for new products. After Stroh-Light, it took another four years until a specially developed new product was brought onto the market: Stroh Signature, a premium beer.
In order to save costs, employees were laid off and the property of the old brewery was sold. This has been converted into Brewery Park , an office complex. In 1989 Peter Stroh tried to sell the company to the Coors Brewing Company . However, this deal did not materialize. A planned acquisition of G. Heileman Brewing Company , the fifth largest American brewery, was also unsuccessful.
One of the few signs of success was the award of the "Beer Lovers" advertising campaign in 1985. The ice cream business was sold to Dean Foods in 1988 . During the 1990s, Stroh fought unsuccessfully against its dwindling market share: In 1995, Stroh had a market share of 12%, making it the third largest brewery behind Anheuser-Busch and Miller . However, within the next two years, the market share fell by almost half.
Realignment in the 1980s
In order to be able to cover the accumulated debts, the company's own packaging plants and shares in the Spanish Cruzcampo brewery were sold to Guinness . In order to stop the further negative trend, a three-part strategic realignment was drawn up. This included the development of new products, entry into license production and international expansion.
As a result of this turnover, a number of new products were introduced, including non-alcoholic beers, ice beer and specialty beer . The latter was a reaction to the increasing popularity of microbreweries (also known as “ craft beers ”). As a license partner, Stroh produced beer for August Brewery , Boston Beer Company , Fischer Brewing and Pete's Brewing Company .
The international expansion began with the establishment of Stroh International Incorporated . The neighboring Canada and the growth markets India , Japan , Mexico and Russia were chosen as entry markets . International sales increased by more than 50% annually from 1992 to 1995. In 1994 a license agreement was signed with Rajasthan Breweries to distribute straw beer in India. In Japan, Sapporo Breweries took over production and distribution. By 1995, international business was already contributing over 10% to Stroh's total sales.
Sale and liquidation of the brewery
In 1995, William Henry became the first CEO who was not a member of the Stroh family. A year later, G. Heileman Brewing Company was bought for $ 290 million. As a result, Stroh's product range grew by over 30 brands, including the popular Colt 45 . Together with Schlitz Malt Liquor, Stroh held over half of the market share in the malt liquor market. With the acquisition of Heileman, Stroh increased its capacities considerably and improved its market presence on the American west coast.
Although Stroh's competitive position had improved, the company gave in to pressure in 1999 and was bought partly by Pabst Brewing Company and partly by Miller Brewing Company . Reasons for this were the accumulated debt burden through the purchase of Heileman , the end of the license agreement with Pabst and the continued aggressive price war of the competition. At the time, straw held just under 10% of the American beer market. The company was dissolved as a result of the acquisition and the brands were added to the portfolios of the buyers.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Stroh Brewery Company: History ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed June 18, 2013
- ↑ The English texts indicate from Kyrburg Castle . One should think of the coat of arms of the Wildgraves .
- ↑ Stroh Brewery at Beer Collections ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed June 18, 2013
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Funding Universe: History of The Stroh Brewery Company , accessed on June 18, 2013
- ↑ Straw Brewery at BeerMe! (English), accessed June 18, 2013
