Yankee Brew News Archive

Boston Beer Company's Sales Jump 63%

Originally Published: Spr/93

The Boston Beer Company, brewer of Samuel Adams Boston Lager and several other specialty beers, commemorated the best year in its seven year history recently, by flying its employees to Disney World in Florida for a celebratory weekend.

Putting the growth into perspective during his State of the Company address to employees, president Jim Koch noted that the same amount of beer sold in 1992 was sold in the company's entire first five years. Koch said he realizes that Samuel Adams appeals to only a very small segment of the beer drinking population--somewhere between two and four per cent of all beer drinkers. "There are many people who do not like the taste of Samuel Adams because it tastes like beer, but I promise you," he emphasized, " Samuel Adams will always taste like beer--a great beer."

Koch also reflected on the company's beginnings in 1985 with one truck, a forklift, and a couple of pads of paper for taking orders. "The company has grown," he observed, "but the dream of making great beer continues. The company exists to fulfill that dream."