Cooper's Brewery Case

Cooper’s Brewery

Key Strategic Issue: How is Cooper Brewing going to respond to a declining national market and the threat of a very large new entrant into the Australian alcohol market?

Recommendation: Cooper Brewing should to stick to their “notch” in the Australian market (handcrafted premium beer) and continue to expand their product globally.

Support: I believe that Cooper should stick to what they know best and what made them what they are today in the Australian market, which is handcrafted family owned beer. The reason they should continue to make their premium beer is because in my opinion there is a rapidly growing market for unique handcrafted beers. Cooper has an edge in the Australian market because the larger brewing companies are not going to meet the customers’ desire for a locally owned premium beer because they are a large corporation. Also because of economies of scale Cooper doesn’t have the ability to compete with the large players in the market as far as mass produced beer. As far as the global market I believe that they should use the same approach they are using in the home country. As an example of a company that I would like to compare them to is even in their same field, Samuel Adams Brewing. Sam Adams is a small brewing company located on the eastern coast of the United States. I believe that they have under 100 employees that work for them and even with their small size in comparison to companies like Anheuser Busch and Miller Lite they have a good share of the market because they are a small company that makes premium beer. If Cooper sticks to what they know they can continue to grow their company and begin to compete with the larger companies in the future.