URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/203698
At least three days a week, Kim Jordan hops on her Spot Brand custom bike and cycles the three miles from her house in Fort Collins, Colo., to the New Belgium Brewing Co. just outside the city's Old Town.
The path she takes meanders alongside a stream and over train tracks, not far from where hundreds of people converge during the company's summer "bike-in movie" events, gathering on the lawn to enjoy films paired with fine beers--like New Belgium's flagship Fat Tire Amber Ale, the organic wheat offering Mothership Wit and La Folie, a sour ale aged in the large French oak barrels that loom behind the bottling site.
In a town like this, Jordan's way of commuting might not seem out of place. But for the CEO of the third-largest craft brewing company in the U.S.--which posted $93 million in revenue last year, and is expected to break $100 million in 2009--her habits are progressive.
Just consider this: In less than two decades, she has increased production from a mere 220 barrels to a staggering 567,000 barrels. Employee ranks have swelled above 300, and the brewery has had to move into bigger facilities twice. Today, New Belgium is housed in a gleaming $100 million, 210,000-square-foot facility.
But it still has the soul of a startup. And a CEO who believes that is the secret to its success.
"I like collaboration," says Jordan, who's wearing her typical jeans and a plain shirt. Her office has no sweeping view or swanky furniture--it's crowded enough with just a desk and a loveseat. "I like riffing off of other people and that process where you build something that's bigger and better than you can imagine."
And it's true that New Belgium's culture has more in common with an early stage company than one approaching the 20-year mark. There's the 92 percent employee-retention rate, helped along by enviable perks: ownership in the company and a special edition cruiser bike after one year, an all-expenses paid trip to Belgium after five--and lots of free beer (two six-packs a week, plus a daily shift beer). The bulk of the marketing budget even goes toward events such as the Tour de Fat, a nationwide bicycling tour that spreads the gospel about alternative transport.
Jordan also points out that in 1998, New Belgium's workers voted to convert to 100 percent wind power, even though the move meant cutting into raises and bonuses. Now, some electricity is generated on site, too, using a waste-water treatment plant that pulls methane out of the brewing process. The brewery is also careful to invest in equipment that will pay for itself in energy savings.
"I think that's sexy," Jordan says. "Conservation is sexy."
Basement to Boardroom
It all sounds pretty groovy, but the fact is you can't get to where New Belgium is without serious work along the way.
In 1991, Jordan and her husband Jeff Lebesch quit their day jobs and made the incredible leap to start a brewery in their basement. The couple--she was a social worker, he was an engineer--took out a second mortgage to set up a brewing operation and made liberal use of several $10,000-limit credit lines.
"For about eight months, we didn't pay ourselves," she says. "We borrowed money from my parents and made payroll, but looking at the bills, we had to decide which to pay, which would have to wait--and who wouldn't notice if we didn't."
When they tried to move to a bigger facility, they hit a wall with funding. "That's the tough spot most entrepreneurs find themselves in, when they're not old enough or experienced enough as a company to give banks confidence--but if they can't figure out how to get that larger infusion of cash, they can't carry on," Jordan says. Lebesch solved the problem, she says, by telling equipment vendors that whoever helped them secure financing would get their business.
"I would guess you hear this kind of thing fairly frequently," she says. "It's really about entrepreneurial tenacity. We just said, 'We're going to figure this out, we're going to make it work.' And you get over that hump."
She made it work.
New Belgium came completely under her watch after Lebesch retired in 2001, and she has since increased production by nearly 250 percent. Expect even more change next year. The company recently bought out Lebesch's shares--and the couple's divorce should be finalized this month.
Love, Beer and Profit
Love, Beer and Profit
What Jordan created, says Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association, is nothing short of remarkable. "To grow as big as they have, and to have that unique personality, has a lot to do with Kim being the CEO," he says. "This kind of company culture, more often than not, has to be individually driven by a leader."
And it is. Soon after establishing the company, she and Lebesch had hiked into the mountains to talk about what their brewery would look like. They came back with values such as "kindling social, environmental and cultural change as a business role model" and "having fun." Most important was what became New Belgium's "purpose statement": "To operate a profitable brewery which makes our love and talent manifest."
"I know it sounds corny," Jordan says. "A lot of people might find this culture a little too freaky because there's a fairly high level of emotional communication that goes on here."
But New Belgium's co-workers seem genuinely happy. They call out spirited greetings and stop to chat. Instead of handshakes, there are often high-fives--sometimes even hugs. And Jordan is committed to keeping that culture intact as the company grows.
"I think one of my jobs is to say to people, 'I don't know why we would do that--make more rules, make more policies--just because that's what big companies do," she says. Of course, no company can be a democracy, and all decisions are ultimately in Jordan's hands. She says she looks first to profitability and then considers effects on the community and strategies to improve any piece of the operation.
The results have outpaced even the booming craft-brewing industry itself: While the industry has grown 8.1 percent over five years, New Belgium has grown 13.4 percent. The company entered five new distribution territories this year, and it plans to expand its beer portfolio and pursue partnerships with regional breweries in 2010. That way, the brand will feel more local in new communities, and more management opportunities will open up for employees.
"Stasis is not an option," Jordan says. "If we're all in the same place today that we were in five years ago, that won't be very interesting for the kinds of people that I want to employ."
Indeed, the proper term for New Belgium employees regardless of rank is "co-workers." And many have long histories with the company, such as media relations director Bryan Simpson, who first started on the packaging line. Jennifer Orgolini moved from COO to sustainability director. And, yes, that's like a promotion at New Belgium.
"I just feel like the luckiest person," Jordan continues, her voice breaking suddenly. "I work with incredible people who ... " She wipes her eyes before adding, "Sorry, I don't know why that makes me cry but, really, they've taken to owning this in a way I couldn't have imagined."
All in a Day's Work
By 9:30 a.m., people are lining up outside Jordan's door, waiting for a chance to speak with her. On her agenda: A slew of direct report meetings, an appointment with the president of the Brewers Association, a meeting with a community representative and, of course, several beer tastings. She looks up from her iPhone: "This is actually a light day for me."
Is she surprised she is where she is? Jordan laughs. "I have nearly daily moments of 'This place? Me? We're together? Whoa, who'd have thought?'
"For me to have said, sitting on those rocks way back when, that we were going to be this big, it would have seemed ridiculous, daunting," she says. "It snuck up on me."
But in the next breath, she sounds as if she has chased success as hard as she could. "We did not rest," she recalls of the early days. "If there was brewing that needed to be done, we brewed, and my kids have been to more beer festivals than I should probably admit to."
Her older son, Zak, 24, is a cellar operator at the brewery and an active forager. Today he happens to be behind the main building, picking blackberries. Her other son, Nick, 17, is a senior in high school and "a happening cat," as Jordan says.
Simpson, her media guy, stops by to talk about last night's screening of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," part of the weekly summer movie series the brewery sponsors on its front lawn.
About 400 people biked in and set up lawn chairs and blankets for the show. It resembled a giant block party, with neighbors and New Belgium employees milling about and chatting over foamy cups of Fat Tire ale.
Jordan missed the party because she had Gov. Bill Ritter and nearly 100 of his supporters at her house for a fundraising cocktail. Naturally, she raised more than expected.