Ep. 71 King's and Convicts co-founder Brendan Watters

Today Harry finally meets the Convict, of Kings & Convicts fame, Aussy Brendan Watters, where we dig into Brendan's strategy of expanding through opportunity,  the Ballast Point acquisition, the more recent Saint Archer facility acquisition, and more. Harry is joined by editors Jenn Litz-Kirk and Jordan Driggers. Show starts in earnest: 06:50 ---time-stamped contents--- 00:00 intro - lotsa hilarious banter, technical difficulties, biscuit has a hangover, harry wraps up long three minute anecdote (first of 2).  03:40 jenn shows off her new "jenn's jams" neon.  06:30 editors:  early grokking of molson coors deal with coke to make canned hard versions simply juice. 06:50 more twisted tea or more hard mtn dew? 12:00 GUEST JOINS:  Brendan Watters joins the show and describes how he and his partner got started in the beer business. 17:20 brendan describes how the ballast point numbers got cauterwanky due to pipe-fill and contraction ... margins matter. 18:00 profitable retrenchment on west coast.  22:15 why st. archer purchase? and how to fill all that capacity? "there is a plan". brendan walks us through the economics and realities of tank sizes and packaging capabilities.  26:00 any possibility of brand acquisitions, partnerships?  yes, and beyond beer.  building a platform.  27:00 but not just a "collection" of brands -- gotta make cohesive sense.  27:15 also, don't want to be "culture change agents". 27:45 more on st. archer purchase.  28:45 will more big brewers sell the craft purchases they made years ago? big co's need focus, so likely.  31:40 how they dealt with transition issues for the bp brands, janky pricing, particularly sculpin.  retraction west.  34:50 who is bp's main competition in cali? 36:00 harry bubbles pitch goes sour.  ---About--- Beer Business Daily publisher Harry Schuhmacher joins his editors and other guests once or twice a week as they grok the industry issues of the day.   -Podcast Hotline: Text or call Harry in confidence at:‪ (262) 345-2501‬ -Audio/Video feeds at https://linktr.ee/beernet -Articles referenced at beernet.com -Twitter / IG / TikTok:  @beerbizdaily