In order to grow his brewery business known as Whitetooth Brewery Company, Kent Donaldson did everything he had to, which included working with RevUp to create an actionable plan through leadership and financial coaching.
RevUp is part of an Accelerate Okanagan program that helps businesses tackle rapid-growth issues and promote future success through customized action and a curated team of mentors and experts.
In the case of Donaldson, who runs Golden’s only brewery, certain issues were holding him back from achieving the full potential of the business. One of these is a lack of full-time employees that can shift Donaldson’s focus to running the business from a management perspective.
Before the involvement of RevUp, Whitetooth only had two permanent employees and the rest were working part-time and on temporary contracts.
“You’re going to get part-time results with part-time people, so we made a conscious effort to start to land people in permanent salaried positions,” Donaldson said. “First, we did a methodical breakdown of the nature of the company into components, which involved developing an organization chart and then defining role clarity for every staff member. This process really helped create the cohesive team we have now.”
Being the only brewery in the area has both its pros and cons. On one hand, all the business is going your way since there are no competitors, but at the same time, it’s hard to make connections and network precisely because of this.
“We exist in a silo here in Golden, without other breweries to share ideas with, but we managed to decrease freight costs through some RevUp networking,” Donaldson said.
After coming up with solutions to both these problems, Donaldson looked to improve the technical side of the business, switching their current software for one with more efficiency and simplicity.
Along with software changes, the company has also switched to a BC-based B2B sales program called Ollie Order which Donaldson credits as a “game changer for inventory management.”
Breaking down the finances and making sure payment for products are done instantaneously have all been net positives of the changes made.
For Donaldson and the rest of the staff, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future, seeing as how the company achieved exponential growth and is on track for a 25 per cent increase in production.
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