Buzz growing for Point

05.07.2008 23:01 Home - Source: JS Online

Stevens Point - For more than 100 years, Stevens Point Brewery was best known for its Point Special brand, known as "The Blue Bullet," an inexpensive, mainstream lager nicknamed for its familiar blue label.

But six years after being sold to Milwaukee investors Joe Martino and Jim Wiechmann, Stevens Point Brewery now brews over a dozen beer brands and is growing faster than a speeding bullet.

Most of those new beers, as well as a line of gourmet sodas, were launched by Martino and Wiechmann to tap into the nation's growing thirst for craft beer and sodas. As a result, Stevens Point's 2008 revenue, which the company wouldn't disclose, is expected to be double what it was in 2002, when the brewery was sold, Martino said.

The brewery's sales volume continues to increase, with sales up 14% through May compared with a year earlier. And the Point name, a mainstay in central Wisconsin, has spread to states as far as Georgia, Oklahoma and Massachusetts.

The company has grown on the strength of craft beers that are distinctive but don't have the heavier taste of some specialty brews, said Martino, the brewery's operating partner.

"Our goal is to have someone drink our beer and say, 'That was great. I'll have another,' " Martino said.

That statement might seem like a no-brainer. But there are brewers that target customers who prefer beers that tend to be less "drinkable," a term used by brewers that refers to how full a person feels after drinking a beer. For example, Miller Lite is considered more drinkable than Guinness Irish Stout.

Seasonal brands

Stevens Point doesn't offer a stout among its brand lineup. Its beers include Horizon Wheat, a wheat ale; Belgian White, a Belgian style wheat ale; an amber lager, and a Cascade pale ale. Those beers were selling at a Milwaukee liquor store at $6.59 for a six-pack. With the exception of Point Special, selling at $4.99, the Stevens Point brands were priced below most Wisconsin craft beers, including such popular brands as New Glarus Spotted Cow and Capital Wisconsin Amber, both at $7.99 for a six-pack.

Over the past year, Stevens Point has launched four seasonal brands. They include Nude Beach Summer Wheat, which saw a rash of free publicity in May after the brewery agreed to sponsor this August's annual convention of the American Association for Nude Recreation.

Those brands - all but Point Special and the amber lager were launched under Martino and Wiechmann's ownership - also have won favorable comments from beer fans. The July/August issue of "Draft" magazine gives Horizon Wheat an 89 rating, equivalent to a "high recommendation," on its 1 to 100 scale.

At BeerAdvocate.com, an Internet site where beer drinkers post reviews, most of the brewery's brands carry grades ranging from B- to B+. The brewery's pale ale, which carries an average grade of B-, was viewed by one recent reviewer as "very drinkable."

"If you are a hophead, you will not be impressed," the reviewer wrote. "Hopheads" are beer devotees who like their brews to be heavy with hops - which typically raises the bitterness level.

That same reviewer also opined about Point Special, which remains Stevens Point's most popular brand.

Point Special, which carries an average grade of C+, is "by no means a good craft beer, way too watery," the reviewer wrote. But he also described it as "a very drinkable lager (without) any lingering bitterness or sharp grainy bite."

Contract brewing

The nine Point beer brands make up 45% of the company's sales volume, with Point Root Beer - launched in 2002 - and other soft drinks making up 11% of sales.

Sales volume for the company's Point beer brands was about 40,000 barrels in 2007. That would land it on the nation's top 50 craft brewers list compiled by the Brewers Association, a trade group that Stevens Point Brewery recently joined.

In Wisconsin, the two largest craft brewers are Chippewa Falls-based Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co., a subsidiary of MillerCoors LLC, with 2007 sales of 465,000 barrels, and New Glarus Brewing Co., with sales of 65,000 barrels.

Stevens Point Brewery also owns four beer brands that it bought in 2005 from James Page Brewing Co., which operated a microbrewery in Minneapolis until going out of business. The James Page brands, sold only in the Twin Cities area, make up 2% of sales.

Contract brewing accounts for 42% of the brewery's annual production. That's down from 66% in 2002, Martino said, and shows the rise in sales of Stevens Point's brands, which provide much higher profit margins than contract brewing.

However, both contract production and branded sales have grown, Martino said. The company has 30 employees, compared with 20 in 2002, he said.

The new brands rolled out in recent years have a lot to do with the sales increase, Martino said.

Also helping is a widening distribution network. While Wisconsin accounts for 72% of the brewery's sales volume, Stevens Point sells its beverages in 17 states, with three more states being added to the network. In 2002, before the company's sale, the distribution was largely confined to Wisconsin, the Minneapolis area and the Chicago area, Martino said.

The sales increase required a large investment by Martino, a former sales manager at Miller Brewing Co. and other brewers, and Wiechmann, who owns and operates apartment buildings in the Milwaukee area.

$4 million upgrade

The owners have put about $4 million into new equipment at Stevens Point, including a computer system, bottle filler and labeler, Martino said. Those investments helped speed up production and improved the ability to brew beer at a more consistent level of high quality, he said.

Wiechmann, a longtime friend and former neighbor of Martino's, said the owners are contemplating additional improvements, including a possible expansion of the brewery.

Martino and Wiechmann's ownership of Stevens Point Brewery hasn't been without its rough patches. The company dropped two low-calorie beers, in part to concentrate on the craft beers. An attempt to expand the James Page brands to Wisconsin was greeted with indifference. Another victim of poor sales was a 2003 revival of the Augsburger brand, which Stevens Point brewed under license from brand owner Pabst Brewing Co.

But the strength of the brewery's craft brands are helping push Stevens Point into locations far from Wisconsin's North Woods, including three states being added this year: Ohio, Tennessee and Alabama. In many of those states, drinkers view Stevens Point as somewhat exotic, Marino said.

That's reminiscent of the cult-like following that developed around Coors Banquet beer when it spread from its Rocky Mountain base in the 1970s.

"It's the mystique of limited distribution," Marino said.

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