Brewery Ommegang

2-5-10

‘The philosophy across Duvel” – Brewery Ommegang’s parent company – “is you get the right thing.  You pay the price for it, but you get the right thing.”
Simon Thorpe, Ommegang’s new president, was enthusing over a beer-and-wire topping machine, top of the line, imported from Italy, that was being installed in the Medieval-style Town of Middlefield plant the other day.
“This is a big day for us,” said Thorpe.  “Investing in little things makes the difference between great quality and really good quality.”
Ommegang’s goal:  “The top of the pyramid for super-premium quality.”
“The right thing,” “top quality,” “the best.”  These are the types of phrases you hear if you spend much time with the 47-year-old Brit who arrived in Cooperstown via a 25-year career that ranges from Brussels to Battle Creek, Mich.

Listening to Thorpe, you can imagine how the scene behind the brewery’s neat facade you see from Route 33 must pick at him:  Kegs are stacked here, pallets there, crates over there.
But not for long.  Accompanied by brewmaster Phil Leinhardt, Thorpe strides toward the frame of an 8,000-square-foot warehouse that is rising to the north of the main building.
By March, the building should be finished and a storage “pinch” that has been slowing Ommegang’s production should be eased.  In addition to providing a home for all that material out back, the warehouse will contain an expanded “warm cellar” – the Belgian-style brews are further bottle-aged after the regular brewing is complete – that doubles the current space.
This is part of the effort to expand the 36-hectoliter capacity – a hectoliter is 100 liters or 26 gallons – to 45-50 hectoliters.
The need to expand is an outgrowth of success:  In the past year, the Dow went up 2.2 percent; Ommegang’s volume rose 11 percent, and its revenues, 20 percent.
Thorpe sees the brewery’s success as a byproduct of the Europeanization of Americans’ approach to food and drink – a heightened interest in flavor and quality.
“We are in the perfect place at the perfect time to grow with that trend,” he said, perhaps to even 100 hectoliters in five years.
Grow where?  “We have 148 acres here,” he said, with a nod out back.  He anticipates the brewery, which employs 30-some people now – several of the new people are in sales and marketing, spreading the Ommegang word to all but four of the 50 states – could double in size in a decade.
Thorpe was raised in Southhampton, England, on the Channel, won a scholarship to a good secondary school and studied engineering at the University of Birmingham.
During a five-year stint with Unilever in the manufacture of margarine in London’s east end, he discovered his real interest was marketing and strategy.
He spent nine years with Tambrands in Belgium and Germany, then joined Kellogg’s in fabled Battle Creek, just as the company was discovering a market in convenience foods like Pop Tarts, Neutrogena Bars and Rice Krispie Treats.
He joined Hallmark just as people were shifting to e-mails, and found himself responsible for strategically retrenching Crayolas in the Binney & Smith division.
The link in all this:  “I’ve always wanted to run companies that have beautiful brands, real high quality brands with growth potential.”  (Hold that thought.)
Then, beer, and it gets a bit complicated.
Thorpe joined InterBrew; the Belgian beer company had established “flagship local brands” in Korea, China, the U.K. and elsewhere.
His first challenge was to merge InterBrew with AmBev – its South American equivalent – and create InBev.  After a stint in Belgium, he returned to the States as InBev’s U.S. CEO, responsible for such brands as Labatt, Rolling Rock and Beck’s.
Foremost, he oversaw the rise of Stella Artois.
Innovation One: Every available billboard in the top 30 U.S. cities was obtained for Stella. 
Innovation Two: The company provided “millions” of chalice-like glasses with the Stella logo on the side to bars that served the beer.  So when you got a Stella, it was in a Stella glass, something that’s become a staple for quality beers.
Itchy to run his own company, Thorpe put together a private equity fund with some friends, but when the market collapsed in 2008, he reconnect with Michel Moortgat, president of Ommegang’s parent, Duvel Moortgat.
From what you’ve read so far, you can see how this would have been an ideal match.
In addition to ramping up production and sales, one of Thorpe’s novelties – he said he’s leaned heavily on brewmaster Leinhardt and Larry Bennett, director of marketing – has been the four specialty brews announced last month.  Only six weeks’ supply of each will be produced, and a different beer will be released quarterly.
Ommegang has caused a splash in beer circles nationally, but, Thorpe said, everything gets old; this is an idea to keep the brand fresh.
Plus, “there’s competition down there,” said Thorpe, his head inclining toward the French doors at the end of the second-floor offices that look out to where the brewers concoct their potions.  “It’s created a buzz in the brewery.”
Meanwhile, Thorpe is settling into Cooperstown, which he’s found he likes quite a bit.  He’s met a lot of people.  There’s a vibrant social life.
His wife Julie and son Robert, 17, who have followed him back and forth across the Atlantic several times, remain in Brussels for now until the son graduates from high school.