I was out with Jim Koch last night. I was pleasantly surprised with the guy's modesty, sense of humor, people skills, and intelligent insights about his business and his company. Learned that he has a JD and MBA from Harvard, but walked out of the consulting business to become a brewer and a beer salesman. Turns out his ancestors are brewers in an unbroken line from 1840 to him. The line is still intact, as Jim loves to make beer, had a 6 pack with him, and he opened a bottle, poured it into the Sam signature glass, and drank a frosty while he was interviewed at the BPL last night.
SAM went public at $15.00 in 1995.
The guy is always selling. He told the crowd that the stock took a 4% hit yesterday b/c he disclosed on the "earnings call" that profits will take an incremental hit next year. To improve beer quality, he's going make beer only a week before it is sold, (instead of 5-7 weeks now), and keep it refrigerated at all times in the supply chain. He's all about growing his 0.9% market share.
Jim has the "sole voting power" over 4,585,008 shares of SAM. There are 9,000,000 shares outstanding. What Jim says, goes. Beer has been very, very good to him. And, the beer is good.
Here is another brewer, gone bad:
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