Business Heroes of the Beverage Industry - Part 2

A business degree or a doctorate in marketing are nice at best. But you can't learn what makes a really good entrepreneur. First and foremost, you need the courage to make uncomfortable decisions. We introduce four such business heroes. Stephan Michel of Mahrs Bräu in Bamberg is one of them. He is the fourth generation to run a Franconian private brewery with over 400 years of history. When he introduced the 0.25-liter bottle, it was derided as a "baby bottle." And what people say about his canned beer...! But that doesn't impress Stephan Michel.

"When I came up with the idea of the 0.25-liter bottles in 2011, my father asked, 'Who's going to buy that?' The regulars were like, 'He's out of his mind, we drink halves here!' Only my grandfather, at 97, liked the idea. He always said: 'Stephan, make me a smaller beer, I can't manage the big one'. But my real focus was on the female sex. For the girls, a half is often too much. The beer gets warm and stale and then they leave it - or don't drink any at all. The beautiful little bottles, on the other hand, appeal to female beer drinkers. And they always have cool beer! In the trade, the small container was particularly well received at food trucks or in clothing stores where beer is also sold. Late-night bars think the eight-pack is great. And many companies are also taking advantage of the small pack. For example, when we brew beer for Quicksilver, which serves the beer at trade fairs, 0.25-liter bottles are just the right size.

Many companies have discovered the cool sip of Mahrs Bräu for themselves and make their customers or business partners happy with their own label on the bottle, which stands out from the merchandising jungle. In the end, the idea with the 0.25-liter bottles was so good that Tucher copied us in 2014. I didn't find that so funny. On the other hand, of course, it's a nice thing to be a trendsetter as a traditional brewery. And then we started bottling in cans. It was really crazy: We only hinted at it briefly on Facebook - and everyone went crazy. Cans only went for craft beer until then - and now we're canning our Helles and 'a U'. Why not!"

More business heroes:

Part 1 of the series: Benedikt Kuhn of Bembel-With-Care

Part 3 of the series: Dr. Martin Tesch from Weingut Tesch

Part 4 of the series: Dr. Erlfried Baatz from Schilkin GmbH und Co. KG