Brewing an epic plan - Epic Beer

I grew up with a Grandpa who home- brewed beer, so it was always there, but I didn’t set out to become a brewer. I did a commerce and management degree, then travelled to the US. While I was there, I spent some time in LA, and got into brewing over there and hung out with brewers, says Luke Nicholas.

When I came back to NZ, I realised: “Hey, I can do anything I want, why don’t I become a brewer?” So I went to this brewery in East Auckland to ask for a job. They said no, but I asked them for a year. They could see that I was keen. I eventually threw in a high-paying job that I hated, for a minimum wage job at this brewery.

While I was managing the brewery, I realised we had to make it profitable, and suggested making a new beer brand, which we did. After a year, the brewery decided they’d have to spend a whole bunch of money to make it fly. So in 2007, I bought it back and kept making beer. Ultimately, this became Epic.

On this page: Passion is the key Getting help The outsourcing advantage The network advantage

Passion is the key

My passion is making great beer and sharing it with people. In the States, I had the chance to see what craft beer could become. I saw there was a niche in NZ.

I’ve attended a bunch of business courses, and some of them are really cool and have sound bites that stick. Otherwise, they just reinforce common sense.

A lot of it is about getting out and learning along the way.

Getting help

 NZTE helped out but we were trying to get to another tier to reach advisers – Beachheads. However, because we’re too small and are not doing over 5 million in sales, we don’t have access to those resources.

We had obstacles with one of the mentoring programs we went through, where the personalities just didn’t really click. There are things in life that don’t always work out at the time, but then you get in a better position and find someone or a situation that’s better suited to you. In terms of business advisers, I picked stuff up from talking to people. I also looked at a wide range of different available resources.

The outsourcing advantage

We outsource everything – contract a warehouse, logistics, everything.

I used to be the guy who printed out the invoice, and put the courier sticker on the box. That was taking up more than half a day, every single day. You have to get to a certain size to be able to justify that extra spend on an employee. It was a growing phase – figuring out what takes up the most time, and figuring out how to get someone else to do it.

We got a grant from NZTE for building our brand, and a grant for market development, in the UK. This allowed us to get our brand right the first time, and we spent a lot of time and money getting it right. Brand was really, really important. People had to want to pick Epic off the shelves in supermarkets and in bars.

I ended up interviewing ten companies, and it took a whole week, where they came and pitched to me. I met boutique consultancies, big agencies; what I wanted was a really good marketing partner. My main criteria were: they had to able to explain their process to me, they had to get on with me, and they had to like beer.

The network advantage

I was lucky. Because I was involved with realbeer.com, this opened up an entire network in the States, to key brewers and what they’re doing. It helps me spot the new global trends, and keep track of what’s going on in the market all around the world.

The communities that I’ve built are around social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. These are the valuable tools that I use to market the brand.

I’m using those networks to find an assistant. It’s powerful being able to tap into your friends’ friends, and their friends, and their friends. The way I work is through word-of-mouth and building networks.

When I first started using Twitter, there were 450 people in New Zealand on it. I used it more like a personal diary rather than anything else. Now it’s a way of being able to share interesting stuff. When I was travelling, it was a great way of saying, “Here’s my beer, here’s my location”.

I actually found a venture capitalist through Twitter. We’re all but ready to close a deal with her. Someone told her to follow me, and then I checked out her website, and went: “Wow – this is exactly the kind of person we’ve been looking for.”

New Zealanders are so entrepreneurial, but we don’t have enough access to resources. One of the main reasons small businesses fail is because they’re under- resourced and under-capitalized. The pattern is that in the first year, if you’re profitable, your money’s flat out in stock, and in making more profit – making more to sell more. And so we lack the resources to grow.

Business Drill-down

• Business type: Beer supplier
• Main products: Specialist beers, with Epic’s Armageddon IPA and Pale Ale being rated first and second for the Australia and New Zealand region by ratebeer.com.
• Number of staff: 1 full-time, 1 part-time
• Trading since: 2006
• Main markets: New Zealand and Australia
• Website: www.epicbeer.com

• This information is provided by CapabilityNZ
  
  www.capabilitynz.org