This is a part of a continuing series of Q&As with members of the brewing community from across the US. Brewer Magazine will share business and personal insights from Brewmasters, Head Brewers, Brewing Managers, Sales Directors, QCQA Managers and others each weekend to help you get to know each other better in the industry and learn more to better develop your own brand.
Ryan Bandy, Chief Business Officer, Indeed Brewing — Minneapolis
BREWER: How have recent challenges in your position helped make you better? What were those “pain points” and how did you solve or adjust to the issue?
BANDY: Well I can talk about some recent challenges — I think the jury is still out on whether it’s helped make me better or not! As always, staffing changes are a constant ‘challenge’ in the sense that change in personnel can create chaos, miscommunication, execution problems, and more. I think we’ve tried to few those types of things opportunities to change process and structure: to bring in new insights and inspirations with new people can be as exciting as it is difficult! And that’s probably the larger point that I try and remind myself of: there is nothing worth having that isn’t difficult, so try and embrace the hard things to use the energy to create positives. Suppose it’s the ole lemons and lemonade thing.
BREWER: What has been your brewery’s most recent accomplishment and how is it going to improve your business going forward?
BANDY: I think my thoughts go first to our THC production, branding, and sales. We’re coming up on two years of making THC beverages, and I think we’ve done a great job innovating, creating new processes and recipes on the fly, and executed at market. But in the super-recent news, we just won Minneapolis/St. Paul Beverage Manufacturer of the Year. Awards like that aren’t our goal, but it’s always a bit validating to get some positive feedback about our manufacturing work.
BREWER: How did you start in the industry and why do you still want to be a part of it?
BANDY: I got started at Indeed as a part-time packaging assistant almost 11 years ago. I think the official term at the time was ‘Snapper’ because it was 8-10 hours of snapping PakTechs onto six-packs. But I had been, and continued to work for several years until I was full time at Indeed, at tangential-industry jobs like chef, bartender, barista, music-industry, etc. I loved how breweries, especially Indeed, are intersections of a lot of those industries and cultural energies. I love that we get to create a space for people to hang out and live their life and create brands that people bring along with them as they go forward in their lives. Oh, and I love drinking beer, so that helps!
BREWER: What are you sippin’ on right now from your brewery that you really enjoy?
BANDY: I’m always sipping on Day Tripper, our West Coast Pale Ale that was our first beer we canned and it’s a delicious, bitter, hoppy Pale Ale. I can’t quit it! But on the more seasonal note, I love our Brightside Sea Salt and Lemon Lager. It’s a pseudo-Helles base that is surprisingly salty with a little lemon twist, and it’s just perfect in the summer. Every time I have one drink, I immediately want another one. Well, I also grabbed an Oktoberfest off the line this morning and drank it quickly. It’s been lagering since May and it was delicious.
BREWER: Be it in styles, ingredients, business strategies or sales & marketing techniques, what are some recent industry trends that you’ve tried or are excited about trying this year?
BANDY: As far as ingredients, we definitely explored the addition of salt, and I’ve really loved it. It’s one of those ingredients that has always been around the edges of beer — whether it’s Gose, or Micheladas, or olives/pickle juice at a dive bar — but you don’t see a ton of it in different styles of beers. So it’s been fun to play with it and have it really work. As far as business strategies, I think we’re constantly working on how to balance innovation and creation with sustainability, processes, and structure. Those things are inherently at odds, while being inextricably linked, so it takes constant attention to nurture them both; both the crazy, moonshot ideas with the structure and organization it takes to run a company. If it’s actually possible and I figure out how to do that, I’ll let you know!
READ MORE: Steps to Create Strong Sales Management Strategies
BREWER: What are some adaptations to business practices in the industry that you’ve observed over these past few years, and how has your brewery adjusted to stay competitive?
BANDY: When I think of changes to our industry the last few years, I think of a lot of craft breweries hitting their 8-10 year mark, the industry is hitting a bit of downturn, investments are coming up to term and/or needing more investments, and breweries have to make decisions of which path to take. I think a lot of breweries are circling the wagons, so to speak, trying to double-down on what got them here, and hope their brand is strong enough with their same target market to wade through the downturn. I think we’ve adjusted in a slightly different way — we evolved from a founder/owner CEO to a long-term employee; we’ve continue to invest in our R&D taproom in Milwaukee; we’ve become obsessed with creating the best taproom experience in Minneapolis and Milwaukee; invested in THC production; and renewed focus on creating sustainable internal processes. It has been — and will continue to be — probably the harder road than resting on our laurels, but I like the saying, ‘What got us here won’t get us there,’ so we need to always be progressing.
Be the first to comment