What started in the 1980s, founder Drew Smeeton saw his passion of home brewing English style ales from his homeland quickly grow in 2000 when he was joined by Jeff Douglas to start Four Bullets Brewery. Today their full grain production brewery produces a dozen of labels to satisfy the taste of the ever-growing craft beer drinker. Their Richardson taproom offers a variety of brews including ESBs, IPAs, Bocks, Porters, Stouts and more.
The Situation
As part of a pollution prevention grant providing onsite assistance to Food & Beverage manufacturers, TMAC reached out to Jeff to see if they were interested in receiving assistance. Working through Covid-19 had presented many challenges for the organization, and they wanted to continue growing once restrictions on the public access were lifted.
The Solution
TMAC staff started by observing the brewing process from the weighing of ingredients to final tap room delivery. The assessment included reviewing Energy Star’s Treasure Map for microbreweries which address 14 energy best practices to help reduce energy consumption at their Richardson facility. Topics addressed included facility management, brewing production equipment, hot water and steam systems, chillers, refrigeration, motors, pumps and piping systems, compressed air, fans, lighting, building envelope, HVAC, food service equipment and office equipment/plug loads. Updates to lighting in their tasting room to LED technology is saving over 2,500 kWh of electricity each year. The upgrade of their glass washer to a high efficiency model consuming 2 gallons less water per cycle also provides enormous savings on soap and rinse costs. During the energy review TMAC requested a copy of their electricity bill and determined that they were paying state sales tax on their electricity service. TMAC knew as a manufacturer, Four Bullets could qualify for a tax-exempt status justified by a predominate utility usage study. TMAC then prepared the utility study and filed paperwork with the state sales tax office and Four Bullets received a refund check for $1,600. TMAC also notified their energy provider to remove all future sales tax changes, reducing all future bills by 8.25%. The TMAC staff then met with Drew and Jeff for several planning meetings to conduct TMAC’s Business Transformation methodology. The efforts included a business value assessment, a strategic growth plan, financial analysis, marketing and sales strategies, and an operational excellence approach for growth to increase and sustain profits. Four Bullets was now purposefully meeting on a regular basis to develop key metrics and measures that were critical for their plan’s success. TMAC also introduced some new tools to forecast future sales to help with planning the daily brewery activities. Four Bullets was excited to then see some of its best months for sales revenue growth as they executed their plan and monitored their day-to-day action plans to maintain future growth.
The Results
Four Bullets Brewery reported the following impact as a result of working with TMAC:
OVER 20%
growth revenueOVER 5%
profit growth$1,600
electricity sales tax refund600 GALLONS/YR
reduced water consumption2,500 KWH
reduced electricity with LED upgrades4,500 LBS
solid waste mash diverted from landfillsNext Steps
We have been very excited about our new relationship with the TMAC. The TMAC team from Lynn, Rolando and Kurt were all genuinely interested in our success, and we now have a clear sales growth action plan to help us grow our business into the future.
-Drew Smeeton
Owner