Ep. 609 - New Belgium Beer Chief Supply Chain Officer Tom O'Connell - We're a Human Powered Business

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0:39Redirect Health, Protection for Business, and Guidance for People. Go check out redirectcoo.com. That's redirectcoo.com. And if you're talking to them, let them know that Cameron at the COO Alliance recommended you go there as well. In 25 years in any organization, you get to know people. I worked at seven different facilities. I almost built like a little bit of a reputation, but I knew people's names. I knew their families. Coming to a new organization at the level that I'm at, it's really hard to get to know people. And as I get older, names are coming harder and harder, but I always try to remember names, try to remember, you know, some sort of connection to that person.

1:18It's important for us as leaders, like you said, in the second and in command is to make things know that you're the same as anyone else. You're no different. You connect with people the same way and know that if someone needs something, they can always at least talk to you about something, you know, not feel like there's a barrier.

1:36Welcome to the Second in Command podcast, produced by the COO Alliance and brought to you by its founder, Cameron Herold. In the Second in Command podcast, we talk to top COOs who share the insights, strategies and tactics that made them the chiefs behind the chief. And now, here's your co-host, experience-driven growth strategist, former chief strategy officer, and author of No One Needs Another Company Mug, Lindsay Smith. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Second in Command podcast. My name is Lindsay Smith, and I'm very excited to bring to you our guest, Tom O 'Connell, the chief supply chain officer for New Belgium Beer.

2:17As New Belgium's supply chain officer, Tom O 'Connell manages the company's brewing operations and supply chain strategy, bringing more than 25 years of brewing experience and a deep technical understanding of beer production. Tom joined New Belgium in 2024 to oversee operations at New Belgium's four breweries in Fort Collins, Colorado, Asheville, North Carolina, Comstock, Michigan, and Daleville, Virginia. Tom looks forward to contributing to New Belgium's continued innovation with Voodoo Ranger and in the Beyond Beer category. Originally from southern New Hampshire, Tom began his brewing career at Smutty Nose Brewing Company during college at the University of New Hampshire, where he studied chemical engineering.

2:59Before coming to New Belgium, Tom was vice president of brewing and quality North America for Anheuser-Busch, where he led a team of more than 1 ,400 employees across 46 locations. He also has had roles as brewmaster, brewery general manager, brewery operations director of eastern United States, and Vice President of Supply for Craft and Imports. I am very excited to have our conversation today. Welcome, Tom. Thanks for having me, Lindsay. Oh, it's my pleasure. So let's answer everybody's first burning question. How did you end up in the world of beer? A little bit by fate, I would say, which is a pretty neat story.

3:39I was in college at the University of New Hampshire, studying chemical engineering. And, you know, I've had a lot of discussions with my dad because he was an engineer. And like, what am I going to do next? What field do I want to get into? Beer never came up, although my dad was a big beer fan. I imagine if you had thought about this, it would. But I needed to work when I was in college. And I had an acquaintance that worked at a small brewery called Sonoy Nose Brewing Company in Fort Smith, New Hampshire, which was about 20 minutes away from where I was going to school. And it was just a job.

4:07You know, I showed up, ate it, everything from shoveling and spent grain to clean cakes to putting labels on 22 ounce bombers to all the fun stuff you have to do. You did in the world back then. This was in 1997. uh, in the beer industry and the craft beer industry. Um, but I fell in love with it and I didn't know it could take me as far as it has, you know, uh, coming up on almost 28 years in the business, but it was the start of like this passion for beer. Um, from there turned into an internship at Anheuser-Busch, um, which is in really about 20 minutes from my hometown and in Merrimack, my hamster, unfortunately the brewery is no longer making beer anymore, but it was like a dream come true for both me and my dad, I think, because my dad would take us there when we were kids because he liked to get the free Budweiser, but here his son is not working there.

4:53And that turned into a 25-year career at Anheuser-Busch. All the supply chain kind of bounced around the different breweries, different roles inside the enterprise organization. And, you know, super thankful for what Anheuser-Busch did for me. And then Sean, the CEO here, came in New Belgium. And he said, you know, I've got this opportunity for somebody that like has your experience. What do you think? And I'd heard so much about New Belgium and have known a few people that worked here over the years. And I thought, man, this is a great chance and opportunity for me to spread my wings a little bit, do something a little bit, a little bit larger.

5:28And here I am as the chief supply chain officer at New Belgium. That's pretty incredible. And see, when I heard you started in college, I had wondered if it was in the basement of a frat house learning how to At least your beginnings were more legit than that. Yes, yes. I did love beer. Let's just put it that way in college. That's really wonderful. And so as a second in command, it's really interesting because there's a vast variety of titles that people have. And yours is specific to Chief Supply Chain Officer, right? And they oversee operations. Talk to us a little bit about what that entails and what you have domain over.

6:02Yeah, I like to explain to people, it's everything from the procurement of the raw materials coming into the brewery to make beer all the way through to that last mile of the truck onto the dock floor at the wholesalers and so everything in between so it's production it's safety it's quality uh it's sustainability um you name it that's inside of those two barriers that's what i'm in charge of in the scope of my role obviously i've got great leaders beneath me that manage each one of those departments but um it gives you a huge averse perspective of the business especially when it comes to having the entire operations supply chain.

6:40But I felt like I was well equipped for my experiences in the past that allowed me to help the team make some decisions, make progress in each of their areas. And so how many people are at New Belgium today? Total of business is right around 1 ,400 employees. Inside a supply chain, we're just short of 800 employees. So you've got significant oversight in terms of the number of people and the number of processes that you're working with. Yes, exactly. And then having four sites to manage, you know, has its complexities, but also has its, it's great to be able to see the benchmarking that you can do between sites to bounce things off each other, to see the differences in culture.

7:18But yeah, I think when you get into any kind of organization as supply chain where you start to have multiple sites, it gets even more difficult as the leader to really communicate, to get your, you know, to get the objectives across, make sure everybody's on the same page. But yeah, yeah, it's quite a, it's a good crew. It's a great crew actually. What's the cadence of communication that you have with your various physical locations? So I try to get to them at least once a quarter. Probably this, this clip I'm about there every other, like twice a quarter to most. I'm based here in Fort Collins, which is our main site here for the company.

7:55It's the enterprise location. So in this, and it's right off to the brewery, you know, standing here just next to where the brewing operations happen. So it's really get to those three other sites on a regular cadence. I try to go very beginning of the year, right when we launch the one-year plan to make sure they know the direction and make sure they hear from me what we need to do as a supply chain to be successful in that coming year. And so you meet with them once or twice a quarter. What type of communication do you have in between visits? That's great. Yeah, so I always do one email a month.

8:30It's called, you know, supply chain 321 update. The idea being there's three things that you should know. Two successes to celebrate and one ask of the team members. So one thing around how do we get everybody on the same page if we've got a gap in a KPI or we need help from them in safety or quality. Really kind of hone that message to them in one succinct thing as an organization. And then obviously I do a lot of, you know, we do a lot of little celebrations within each category. each category. So we have a, you know, winner for a safety, um, a safety player of the, of the month. Um, then that's more personal for me to communicate to the teams like congratulations to this winner.

9:08Um, and then, you know, regular Cades, when I go to a brewery, I try to meet with a leadership team and once a quarter, every brewery has what they call a production operations meeting where they shut down the brewery, get everybody together. Um, I try to be at least once a year to those to kind of share the, you know, share the supply chain goals and objectives, also how we're doing. But anytime I can get in front of the entire team, uh, out of a specific, specific site, I'll try to do that. I'll try to get that, that moment in time with that group, uh, to be able to hear from me because I really feel it's important.

9:41Email is very, very hard to communicate the priorities, even though we, we try to. Um, but at the same time, there's a lot of like personal connection that you can have when you stand in front of a group and say, Hey, this is what we're trying to do this year and here's your contribution to that um i think is really important um and i try to do that routinely to make sure that when they know who i am i'm a human i'm not way up here in this pedestal you can kind of you see me i try to have a little comedy to the act even though that doesn't really go over very well sometimes but so i had to put a little humanity into it um and and i think it's for me actually coming from anheuser-busch where i've been there for 25 years, even though it was a much larger, larger organization.

10:21I mean, 25 years in any organization, you get to know people. And I worked at seven different facilities and, you know, had built like almost built like a little bit of a reputation, but I knew people's names. I knew their families coming to a new organization at the level that I'm at. It's really hard to get to know people. And I've really tried to put a lot of effort into it. And as I get older, names are coming harder and harder, but I always try to remember names, try to remember, you know, some sort of connection to that person. Cause I think it really, it's important for us as leaders, like you said, in the second inning command is to make things, um, know that you're the same as anyone else.

10:58You're no different. You know, you connect with people the same way and, um, and know that if someone needs something, they can always at least talk to you about something, you know, not feel like there's a barrier. I love that they shut operations down and make people work on the business because I feel like all too often people get wrapped up in what it is that they're doing, their particular task, that they lose sight of being able to really figure out how they fit into the vision or what the next steps need to be taken are. And when an organization really supports that step away from production and move to let's work on some strategy together and how you fit into it, I think that's really huge for the people and for the organization.

11:40I completely agree. We're actually coming up on a really unique thing that New Belgium does even more to that extent, where we actually take a moment where the entire senior leadership team travels to each site. And the sales from that region, the marketing teams in that region all get together at the site. And we have what's called a retreat. And the retreat is not only talking about like what our goals and objectives are for the coming year, giving a status update of where we are as a business. And then this comes from Sean, from the CEO. and then I have a piece and the CFO has a piece and the people, um, the culture team has a piece, but, and then we have an event where the teams can go out and just bond with each other.

12:18So it's a, it, and then it ends with a party, like any good brewer does, you know, you end it with a party at each site. Um, my liver hurts after the couple of weeks that it takes place to happen, but, uh, it is a, it's an amazing thing that this company has done for since it began. And it's a moment in time where you really, really get that connection to people. And you understand, like, we're a business of people first. We're a human-powered business. And everything we do is based on the people, especially that group at the front lines. And how can we continue to foster an environment where we know we share with them how important they are?

12:56I really love that. And I used to do something similar when I was in corporate America. and we would take our teams and pull them offline for two to three days. But I always started off with a social event and I always ended with a party because I felt the same way. If you just were these meeting, meeting, meeting, numbers, numbers, numbers, without that human connection, you lost an opportunity that you had when you were together with people. I used to make my leadership team do parody videos, so they would have to do a dance to a song that we changed the lyrics to and I put it on these ginormous screens.

13:32So you can take that one back to Sean and let him know that next meeting you're going to be playing. Yeah, that's great. So let's talk about the culture. You mentioned a few moments ago that there's different culture in all of your sites. How do you manage and control that while still being true to the new Valgeria? Yeah, it's a great question, Lindsay. I think understanding, first of all, it can be regional just because the region you're in versus like, you know, the culture of the site driven by the leadership team too. And I think there's a little bit of both in there. Um, I grew up in the Northeast, you know, the, uh, yeah, there you go.

14:11Yeah. Um, and I, it's funny cause I, I know that personality really well. It's been the first 22 years of my life there. And that's great. I mean, actually, to be honest with you, I think the people in Northeast are very direct, um, which I love when it comes to be a leader because you know exactly where they're at. Um, and, but in the Southeast much, they're a little bit different. They're much, usually a little bit happier in general and happier. It's not the right thing to say, but a little, um, you know, a lot of hospitality there, a lot of like, you know, tell me what you want to hear. So sometimes a little harder to get deeper into what their issues are, but at the same time, it's so fun to interact with the people that are in that area because they, because they know what they need to do and, but they listen to you and And they really want to do what's right.

14:54So anyway, each region of the country has different backgrounds. And then the development of the culture by the leadership team, I think, is a real thing as well. So feeling that when you go to a site saying, okay, this one's a little bit different because of the leader I have. I truly believe in being an authentic leader. You are who you are. You can tweak your leadership skills, but you can come. There's no perfect leadership breakdown. There's no person that comes with. It's really about being yourself. but also tweaking the things that you know you need to work on, taking feedback, but not changing who you are.

15:28Because if you change who you are, it doesn't come off as authentic and people see right through it. And it just doesn't work out for you as a leader in the end. It wouldn't be that. A hundred percent. And I think that's one of the hardest things for leaders to learn because they feel that there's this perfect box that they should fit in or that they should aspire to be. and the reality is you are who you are you can't say it any more clearly than you did so new beltham's having a moment right now you're seeing some tremendous growth talk to us about what that looks like no it's exciting to be a part of the company right now i think if you look at the beer industry as a whole um it's struggling you know and it's been struggling now for a few years and when i say struggling there's a lot of people that are moving towards health and wellness or you know when we do spirits based cocktails or and just away from beer and craft beer in general what we've been able to create here is a brand in some of the brands we have whether it be our bells brand or our new belgium portfolio brands that are showing growth outside of the normal the new york normal brewing industry which is great and to be one of the top one of the only companies growing in the top 10 burrs in the country is something we take pride in and we're excited about.

16:44And also know during this time, the one thing about beer is it has stood the test of time and people will still drink beer, which is great for us in the industry. And when we come out of maybe this dip we're seeing in overall beer consumption, that we'll be better off as a company and stronger because of the things that we did during this time, but maybe a little bit more challenges. But yeah, it's exciting to be a part of this company. This company has grown off innovation and has some really great innovations that have really done well this year and we see the portfolio next year evolving with even new uh greater new products so we're excited about what the future holds as well so what would you attribute the growth to i think it's just that lindsey i think uh the the innovation that we've been able to work with the marketing and sales and the the supply chain right because we're the ones that have to develop the recipes from the ideas of the marketing and sales team come with has been a strength of our company for the last 35 years.

17:42And when you think about the things that we've been able to do in the last five years during maybe a little bit more challenging time for beer, it's really stretched the envelope. Things that people would say, ooh, I don't know if you can make a great beer at that high alcohol level. Or I don't know if you can really convince people that this flavor is something that they'll want, that they'll desire. And we're stretching ourselves in things like RTDs. We're going outside the box. We have a lot of teas that we did. So we're not just about beer, not just about craft beer. We're about other things that we know that the beverage, especially alcoholic beverage community, they're looking for and they're seeking.

18:16And I think that's our secret sauce. It's really about how we're able to innovate, how we're able to be flexible at supply chain level, right? Some things, those are hard. Like, you know, anyone's in supply chain says, I just want to make that one skew all day long. That's really easy to make. but we have to be flexible. We have to be agile. We have to adapt to what the business needs from us. And I think that's one thing that this entire supply chain team and the entire company has been really, really good at. Well, you're pivoting, right? Just like the scene in Friends where Ross is pivoting the sofa, you're pivoting to what is needed and the spaces that you need to fit into to continue to bring growth and success.

18:55What would you say is the most unique product that you're currently offering? That's a good one. I think the one that's had really good success for us is the G-Force brand inside of the Forrest family portfolio. When you think about brewing beer, the higher you get in alcohol, the more difficult it gets to keep the yeast happy, right? And, you know, we're all taught as brewers, one of the most important things you can do with the brewing industry to make great beer is to keep your yeast happy. And we've been able to work through some different challenges. You know, we've all had them and I think the team's done a great job developing a product that really meets those needs, a great tasting product with a little bit higher alcohol.

19:32So that's an exciting product for us. And that's something that we see in the market doing very, very well. But we are experimenting with RTDs, right? We have some really, really neat, Vandal is a new product, vodka-based, that we're trying out in different areas of the country right now to see how it does. But it's really full flavor. No beer. It's a, you know, aqua base, like I said, so it's very different from our normal portfolio. Exciting, you know, different. We'll see how it works. Early indication is there's some success in some areas. And then the other thing I think that's pretty exciting for us is our partnership with our parent company, Kirin.

20:10We are brewing here in Ichiban for them in the U.S. here. And so we produce, distribute, sell for them here in the United States. We've had great success being able to brew a great quality lager. and they've told us as such. And that whole portfolio of brands that Japanese imports is growing in the United States. And we've got the second biggest player. And we're excited about what that can do for us as far as our portfolio of Karen products as we come to the United States with that. That's really exciting. So if we go back to your RTDs for just a moment, are you distilling the vodka in-house or have you partnered with somebody?

20:47No, we've partnered with different suppliers. and those suppliers yeah we'll bring it in um you have when you think about the industry we've got beer wine and spirits there's different licensing we've got this in case facility in daleville virginia where they can produce the spirits-based products with the technology but also the right licensing and um it's it's almost uh it's very very small volume right now but exciting right because we know these things are where you look at the growth of the industry there's a big growth and the ready-to-drink spirits-based cocktails. And we want to be a player in that.

21:20And we know we can. We've got the right people to come up with these somewhat crazy ideas. But we know we can deliver a product that the consumer is going to really love and enjoy. How does your marketing and sales team bring ideas to the table for new things for New Belgium to explore? Yeah, that's a great question. And actually, some we've been really, really working on because as we've grown, those ideas are, there's more of them, obviously, because you have more people and the ideas are coming, but they can come in somewhat disorganized and they'd come in from left field and, you know, have it now, have it later.

21:55We've actually been working really diligently on our processes of stage gates, much like any company would. But the most exciting thing, the change of transformation we do is we created what's called stage gate zero. So that's that intake of funnel where any idea can come in that anybody has. And obviously we have to parse through it, make sure it's the right for the business, fits our strategy. But we really know an idea can come from anybody and it can come from a frontline employee on the lines. It can come from a brewer. It can come from our marketing and sales team, but then taking those ideas, funneling them down to the things we're going to work on.

22:29And then some of those are really zany ideas that maybe two to three to four years out. but you know you say oh boy if we can do this if we can create something that meets these this this description boy that would change the business and you have to work on those things while you're working on things like the routine one-year innovation process where you've got to continue to support your brands coming in and um with new innovation right and then when those three to four year ideas come to fruition there might be only one or two that you end up doing but they're impactful enough that they can make a big difference for our business.

23:03I love that ideas can come from anywhere in the business because you're right. Anybody can have the idea. And how fun would it be for, you know, somebody who's a frontline in the store or even a brewer to have an idea that then they get to see made as a product or explored? That's got to be pretty exciting. Yes, definitely. Very exciting. Yeah. And so each of your four locations, are they making different SKUs? Yeah, absolutely. And I think Dale Bill's a little bit unique because they have the licensing, the capabilities to make the RTD. So they're our RTD portfolio producer in Della Virginia.

23:40The Bell's portfolio is mainly made up in Comstock, Michigan, mainly because Bell's is a very regional beer, but they also make incredible products up there that's built. The Bell's brand has been built on that brewery. while Asheville and Fort Collins, they kind of make the new Belgium side of the products. And they make a lot of them, obviously. Fort Collins mainly focused east or sorry, west of the Mississippi, whereas Asheville is distributing east of the Mississippi in that local. But yeah, everybody and then everybody makes a little bit different mix. You know, so, you know, I think Fort Collins makes some unique products here.

24:16We've got some unique products in Daleville, unique products in Asheville. But everybody's got that kind of flexibility and that understanding that they need to be nimble and make the SKUs that do best in their regions. Are the New Belgium.

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25:26products distributed just worldwide or just in the United States? We're mainly in the United States. We are expanding a little bit outside of the United States, slowly and carefully. We've exported, just recently exported some product to Japan, where our parent company is. And we do a little bit outside the border, south in Mexico. We have exported to Australia at times, But really, 99.9 % of our business is here in the U.S. right now. But we do see an opportunity with our brands to explore outside of the U.S. Are you looking at establishing other sites? Or is the vision really to keep the four active sites that you have and just grow them individually?

26:08Yeah, I think right now we're probably sticking to the four sites because we have some capacity available in the network. But there's always, you know, you're always looking. I think there's always an opportunity if the right facility were to come for sale, if we needed to expand a, like if an RTD takes off for us, currently in the licensing in the state of Colorado, you can't do spirits based where you do beer. And that's a really hard, you know, hard state legislation to get over. So we need to do something probably in the West Coast inside that RTD if we were to see something really take off, right, which would be exciting for us, put a little stress on the supply chain.

26:45But at the same time, we recognize that if we had to move quickly, there might be something where we have to do it. But nothing we see in the future that's growing at a rate where we're like, oh, we're probably going to need to buy another facility or build another facility somewhere in the U.S. So we've talked about New Belgium's growth, but it hasn't come without challenges. There's some crises that you've had to overcome. Why don't you share a little bit about that? Yeah, thanks, Lindsay. I'll take you back. two years was actually September 2024. I started on Tuesday, September 24th. And if anybody remembers Hurricane Alene happened four days after that, Friday, September 27th and Saturday 28th, and dumped an incredible amount of water, wind, just devastating to that area of Asheville, North Carolina, which is where we have one of our facilities.

27:39And the facility is in a beautiful location in the center of Asheville, but it's right on the French Broad River. And unfortunately, in that area, the French Broad overcame a bag sit up above a 500 year floodplain in our brewery, ended up with in some places six feet of really silty river water. And what a, you know, for me, being new to the company, showing up there trying to get there for almost a day, being denied. and finally getting there, it really put, it humbled me one because you saw the devastation. You saw what was happening to the people of the, of the company, the people that I just, I didn't, I didn't know many of them.

28:19In fact, luckily the general manager there, her and I worked in Anheuser-Busch together. So I knew her, hadn't talked to her in many years, but you know, just seeing her for the first time and the, you know, the emotions that she had when she first saw us um made me realize boy this is really bigger than what even i wasn't expecting and um you know we had no lines of communication um there's turmoil in the city there's all sorts of things going on that you know i'm i actually believe a little bit in weather sensationalism where people you know blow up the weather because it's like a good news story but this was absolutely not that this was real um and it was very it's quite sad and for me as a supply chain leader you know you you look really quickly here i am new to this business within five days 30 percent of my production was going to be down and it was going to be down for a long time right in fact the first assessment that some people had is it could be as much as a year and even considering why you know the why would we do this to ourselves and and fix this up because we knew um this could happen again or how much work was gonna have to go into it um but we didn't want to hear any of that we knew we could do it um you know but it was scary it was scary for a lot of people and i think um if i could get into a little bit of the like the post norm for me sure what what i realized after that is the first thing you have to do is take care of your people and taking care of people is making sure that they're okay, both physically and mentally.

29:55And you can't expect them to go to work and try to help you get something back up and running or do assessments because they have to focus on themselves and their family and each other, to be honest with each other. With so many great stories of how they care for one another in that. And actually, that's what they want to do. That's where they feel most impactful is you go out and help your peers, help your teammates, for me it was like hey what can I do and everybody wanted to help the people in Fort Connells the people in Daleville Virginia the people in Comstock even people competitors you know called me up right away and said hey how can I help understand the situation we were in and we really really worked hard to bring those people in so that the people at the site in Asheville didn't have to worry about the business they had to worry about each other um so that was like one big learning i had from that remote that the moment the other thing i would say i learned is relationships do matter and it's amazing when you have you know this industry is really small to be honest with you it feels really big in the brewing industry but people know each other and to have a competitor call you up in the moment that happened and say how can i help versus saying oh boy there's a crisis happening there i'm going to take advantage of this crisis and sell more product.

31:13There was more about help than anything else. Even the company I just left, Anheuser-Busch, helped. FX Mat quickly came to brew for us. We had companies offer us equipment that we knew that we had synergies on. We had vendors offer up$50 ,000 worth of chemicals from Ecolab. There's so many people to thank. But just the outpouring of support, because this team here had so many great relationships, It really, really mattered in that recovery effort. And then the third thing, you know, I think that probably the most important thing is the way this company treated its employees or treats its employees really benefits you in the moment of crisis.

31:56Once everybody was safe, man, we couldn't keep people out of the brewery. they just wanted to see their place of work, the people that they work with feel supported, but also they wanted to see it up and running again. And, you know, never did I ever hear anybody complain about what they had to do or what they didn't have to do. And really, it wasn't even us pushing. The people did it because they wanted to see the brewery back up and running. And that to me was the amazing part of this company is we truly are a human-powered business because if you don't treat people right before the crisis happened, they're not going to come and support you as a company when the crisis happens.

32:35And it was amazing for me to see, especially being new to the company. Made me realize the company I just joined was the right company for me, for sure. That's an incredible story. And it's always wonderful to hear that during a time of crisis, there are people that are using it to lift humans up rather than to knock everybody down and be like, this is my market share. I'm going to take this now. Everybody really just wants everybody to succeed. And at every human core, we're his things, taking care of human beings, you know, helping one another along the journey. So I'm happy that that was your experience.

33:14And Asheville is up and moving and running and fully restored. Fully restored. In fact, they've had an amazing summer for us. They're actually have broken records on production the last few months and super proud of that team and yeah and now more than ever you know this company heats them because we are growing and they are you know really coming through for us as a business so really really proud of that team and yeah it it's kind of funny I've been with this company two years but I feel like I know every nook and cranny of that brewery because you know I threw there with a headlamp on or you know yeah so but in the people the same way I feel you know I think anybody in this company is really connected to each other.

33:53But, and it was amazing to see the support from, from the peers here. Um, I just can't say enough Lindsay about like, we had an employee assistance fund that got record donations for the people that lost a home or had their basement flooded or needed help. Um, donations from our trucking service to bring a truck from Fort Collins back and forth to deliver supplies, whether it be generators or brooms or just diapers and things like that. It was just, uh, like you said, it was just so great to see humanity come through in that situation. How long did it take before Asheville was fully functional again?

34:26It was an amazing three and a half months. We, we ruined our first beer January 17th of that, or January 17th of 2025. And so I couldn't have been prouder of the team. And yeah, it was an amazing, amazing effort by everybody. And I was just one piece of the pie, but man, the team was, was absolutely amazing. What would you say has been the thing you've learned since you've been at New Belgium? You've been in the industry for quite some time, but what lesson did New Belgium teach you? Yeah, I think that's it. I think, you know, business can be, I don't want to say cutthroat at times, but business can be challenging at times.

35:08whether it's pushing a vendor on a contract or telling the team that we have to be more nimble and we have to be more flexible and we have to do more with less. But ultimately, it comes down to how you treat people in general, right? How you treat them. And it's not just, it isn't necessary at all financials either. That's an important piece. I don't want to say that that's not important. They have to feel supported in that way, but they have to be in a community. They have to feel listened to. They have to feel heard. Um, and they have to be able to come to work and know that it's not necessarily a job that they do, but it's something that's part of their life and that they enjoy working with the people they work with.

35:48And I think that's probably what I've learned the most a little bit from that crisis moment. Um, but more so as I've been into my second year, it's about the way we are getting things done is with a people first mindset, a human power business. That's the only way to make progress. And sometimes that might cost a little bit more, but it's more important that you have the right care for your people, the right direction that they get the right direction from you. But really, that's what it's most that's taught me the most. Interesting to me is at its most basic core, you are a manufacturing company, manufacturing beer products.

36:26But yet you're talking not about the manufacturing, you're talking about that human element and the way you treat people. And that's just so important, I think, for leaders to recognize that no matter what your business, those humans can be and should be first. And you're demonstrating that really, really well. So good to you and the New Belgium team. Yeah, absolutely. And I learned that a lot from the team I'm surrounded by. You've been in the industry for 28 years. How much or how little has changed in the way beer is brewed? Oh, that's a great question. And yes, technology has advanced from when I first started, for sure.

37:08And I think the big thing to me is there's more data than ever before. Even though with ABI, we have a plethora of data really from when I started. But if you just look at the information you can get now, it is amazing. And the one thing I also learned is data can be hard to process. You can have all the data in the world, but if you're not processing it the right way, then it doesn't benefit you, right? So it's the education piece around data. Why do we look at something? Why is it important? What can I do about it? Like if I get a data point that's outside of norm, what do I do about it? And I think as much as we evolved as an industry around data and information and what are we learning and whether it be AI and trying to use the data in a faster way, we still have to train our people.

37:55And I think it's one thing to train people on the business they do. Like how does a water tub operate or a mash cooker operate? But it's also that mindset of troubleshooting and problem solving based on the data that's coming in. And there's a true thing of data overall. You know, you can have, you know, analysis paralysis. You can have too much data coming in that just gets hard for people to process because they get frozen. And so I think what part of my job is also making sure people are focused, but also understand that I need to train the people and make them understand why this data is important.

38:29Why are we looking at every day what does it drive in the business how does it impact them and so um i think that for me is probably what the biggest thing is just data information has really really changed i think the raw materials change every year which is part of excitement and artist artistry of the job um because we are dealing with living organism and yeast so there's always that a component of it which makes it fun um but i think as we evolve in technology as an industry that data coming in is just going to be in the harder and harder to process. And so making sure our teams are fully qualified to process that information at the front lines too, very much at the front lines.

39:06And how do you make sure the front lines have all of this information? Yeah, that's great. I repeat myself a lot. And you can never, it is hard to get your message as a senior leader. Is that sucking to commit all the way down to the front lines? And so that's, um, one is a game of telephone, right? Is your message getting down to the right person with the right context? Right. And so often I could say something and I'd go to the front line and say, Hey, you know, we're focused on this. Right. And they're like, yeah, but I don't understand why, or I don't see how that benefits us as a company or I don't see the why to that.

39:42And so we're constantly repeating myself, whether it be in front of the entire organization or in front of a group of a leadership team, or even in front of the frontline operators when I'm walking around the site and really being able to talk to them about what they're doing and why it's important. To be honest with you, it's important for me to repeat myself, ask those same questions, but it's also important for them to hear it from me because then they know it's really, really important to me. It's important to the business and it's what they're doing is important to drive the business objectives and why we're all here.

40:13And so I do repeat myself a lot, trying to get the message across in a meaningful way with a good why behind it so that they can feel connected to the business and they feel that they've got the understanding of what's important. What does your relationship with Sean, your CEO, look like? It's great, actually. So Sean, his background is marketing. And what I love about Sean is he's very, very humble. He wants to learn and he wants to learn about supply chain because he knows his background to something that's maybe his strength is marketing. He's done an amazing job as he'd come in. But as he's come into the CEO role, which he's in his second full year now, almost third, I should say.

40:57But he is constantly asking questions, learning from us. He's on the floor, which I really, really love. Sometimes you can get a CEO who doesn't necessarily want to interact with the frontline team. John is in front of people. He's doing the retreat. He visits every site at least twice a year and is in front of the people, communicating with them. So he's very, very present, easy to connect with. But yeah, I feel like it's almost like a partnership, right? And I'm really, really impressed with his desire to find out more about supply chain because he knows it's not one of the strengths. And then he supports me in the sense that he trusts me, but then also questions me and allows me, and makes sure that I'm making the right decisions for my team.

41:37And so the more he learns about the supply chain, I think the better he's going to be as a CEO. but I have no doubt. Yeah. I have no idea. I have his support along with this challenging me to make sure we're the best supply chain can be. That's incredible. And would you say that he's really the visionary behind what's happening in the organization? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I, the, to that extent, I think we've got a great routine where we get a lot of our senior leaders together to shape a lot of what we're trying to do. Obviously it's, it's his vision in a sense, but it's also collective. It's a collective gathering of the information to say, Hey, what should the vision shape and look like?

42:14Uh, in fact, we're going through an exercise right now where we're kind of looking at our values or, you know, our, our company values and, um, are they the right values? What should we do? But it's not just Sean's perspective. It's not just my perspective. It's actually trying to gather as many inputs and outputs as we can from our team members, especially at that, like a couple of layers of leaders down, like what are we're trying to do as a team and put together a vision, a mission, a values that really we think we can get behind for the next five years. And how do you cascade messages down to have the right buy-in?

42:48Yep. No, that's great. I think we've gotten really, really good in my time here about developing a one-year plan that is very digestible by the team. And so we get together in October as a supply chain team, and we only look forward. We were really focused on looking at our five-year vision and saying, hey, this is where we want to be in five years. And then putting that together in a one-year plan that's really taking the next step to get to that five-year vision. So where do we want to be? We do a lot of the headline exercises, like what do we want to be proud of in five years? we know we can't do it in one year but what are what are we physically doing in the next year with our team members with our with our breweries with our what are we going to do to guess to that goal and we're really good at developing that one-year plan that we can all get behind and we try to make a one-year plan a plan that everybody in the supply chain can contribute to sometimes it's got really specific goals and objectives at breweries but we create that that vision of four pillars is the four focus areas that we're going to do communicate that to our team members at the beginning of the year and then every quarter we update those with the results where we're at have our gms present to their teams in those those production meetings to really drive from the client of like this is our four main objectives that we're trying to go accomplish this year are we are we on track to do that and um i think we've gotten much much better it is the hardest, like I said before, we're constantly repeating ourselves.

44:25We're constantly telling the same stories. And if there's one thing that I can do as a leader is get those 700 plus, almost 800 employees to understand how they contribute to those four one-year playing goals that are contributing to the ultimate goal of the company. And for me, that's the hardest part though. It absolutely is the hardest part is to get the team to understand what we're trying to go for, but it's worth the effort because once you have the multiplier of those 800 people all heading in the right direction and the same direction as the business needs them to, it's a multiplier on your progress.

44:58Hurricane Helene aside, what has been the most interesting or difficult piece of your job as chief supply chain officer? Yeah, I think we're in a weird moment in time in the beer industry where we've got this downtrend in total beer sales, but we're also facing a lot of costs. Things coming in, so the price of aluminum has almost gone up five times. Obviously, that's our preferred container, but it's a big container of what we put our beer in. And so it's really challenged the entire industry to be more thoughtful on how they're looking at their business. And I think that's that, you know, plus there's a lot of climate change, whether it be a flood in your location or whether it be a dry season for the malt crop or smoke paint in your hops.

45:54You know, there's things that are coming at us in the supply chain in general. And I wouldn't just say the beer industry, but in general. I was at a conference in Houston just about a month ago, and they showed this graph of the amount of supply chain disruptions in the last 20 years versus the previous 50. And it's gone up like 10 times. So whether it be aluminum shortage or COVID or, you know, tariffs or whatever you're, whatever you're looking at, those things are happening more often than they ever have before. A lot of it's climate. A lot of it might be, you know, something else, but just being able to adjust the supply chain nimbly and look at your business a little bit differently when those things come, I think is going to be really important for anybody that's in my role or any, any sort of manufacturing business.

46:38Because the one thing that we all agreed on in Houston was that this is not going to decrease. It's not going to go back to the way it was 50 years ago. It's only probably going to get a little bit more challenge. And so the companies that are going to survive are the ones that embrace those changes but make changes to offset them. And how are you managing making decisions with rising material costs while keeping your product accessible? Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's hard. I'm not going to lie. I think it's, it's, it's hard. And it's tough. Some of them are tough decisions they have to make.

47:14I think just to be honest with you, I think the big thing is just getting clarity to your team. Not holding those things in sharing, sharing the challenges you have with the team. And sometimes it can be a little bit like, I don't want to say depressing is not the right word, but it's like, oh, here we go again. We're just thinking this year was going to be the year where we didn't have a major crisis with supply or we didn't have a shortage of barley or, you know, like this was supposed to be the year. year, everything was going to come together. And I think sharing with the team, that's okay to be a little bit, you know, a little bit frustrated or a little bit like, Hey, why does this happen every year?

47:45Cause it's going to, I mean, it's actually like why we're here. It's, it's, it's part of what we do and the winners. And I really do feel like we're a winner right now being in New Belgium, as far as what we're doing in the market with our products, the winners are the ones that are going to come off stronger in the years to come. And I think if you have that mindset of, hey, let's embrace those challenges that come in at us and let's, you know, turn them into something that we can be proud of, even though sometimes it's hard. It's OK. Like we did our best. And if we can honestly tell ourselves we did our best, then then I think that we did our best and that's just going to make us stronger on the backside.

48:23So looking ahead, what is in New Belgium's future for the next year? Yeah, that's a good question. I think a lot of new innovations that we're really excited about. So making that happen in the next year is always a challenge for us. Being nimble enough to be able to do it at all of our facilities or one of our facilities, which is pretty exciting. We do have some pretty exciting capital projects that we're working on specifically in the next few weeks here in the Daleville site. that'll really upgrade how they make beer from a quality perspective, from a safety perspective, but also future-proof them, make them ready to be a bigger part of our supply chain in the future, which I'm really, really excited about.

49:06And then we've got some great sustainability initiatives, and I'm really excited about CO2 recovery. We just installed it here in Fort Collins. We're looking at one in Ashland and eventually in Comstock. So we have some great sustainability greenhouse gas initiatives that we're working through. And yeah, it's just it's an exciting time to be a part of this business because I think we are showing that we can be nimble, aggressive and make some big adjustments to the to the business that would make us sustainable for a long time as a company. How many products are in New Belgium's portfolio today?

49:37Oh, boy. When I included Belgium and Bell's, I believe we have close to 700 different SKUs. Don't quote me on that, but I believe it's something around that. pack sizes um you know different products and things like that so um but and when you think about that you're like oh wow uh that's a lot and so the other piece i say is being disciplined to say this this skew has got to go is something that we're really trying to focus on because um and it's not just a benefit to supply chain i always say that because i always feel like i'm the one like oh do we really want to do this anymore and but it it just simplifies the business for everybody.

50:16So when a salesperson is looking at a shelf set, they don't have to look through 750 SKUs. They can look through a few key ones plus a couple of lectures. Finances get a little bit easier because there's not as many of the smaller SKUs where you're trying to develop a budget and things can get missed. And so I think as a business, if you can come up with a new innovations while also making sure that you rationalize your business, maybe at the things that are holding you back or drawing you down, that's a good, that's as important as having a good innovation program, is having the ability as a company to say, we shouldn't do that anymore.

50:50If that makes sense. What is your favorite new Belgium product?

50:57It's got to be for me the Triple. It is just such a quintessential Belgian beer. It's got tons of flavor. It's not something you can sit down. It's a little bit of a sipper because it's a higher alcohol percentage, but it's just super well-balanced, super clean. I love it inside my portfolio. And then I do love an R. Bell's portfolio, just a two-hearted. It's just such a clean IPA, but it also is, it's not overpowering. It's just really, really drinkable across the entire glass. I can't thank you enough for sharing your story and the company's journey with our listeners today. Thanks, Lindsay.

51:36I appreciate it. It's great to be on. Great to meet you and really excited to be a part of this. I know there's great things to come for New Belgium. Thank you so much. Thank you, Lindsay.

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