Brewery beat the odds... with burgers and beer!

UC Goering Center news

Bobby Slattery says COVID-19 is the best thing that has ever happened to his business. And that’s despite the real pain he first experienced as a new reality began to set in.

Implementing changes and refusing to quit, his Fifty West Brewing Co. in Columbia Township now employs more people than it did before the pandemic. Revenue has doubled from previous years.

“When we stopped waiting around for the world to come back to normal and started just saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to go figure this out ourselves and we’re going to try.’ …Once we changed the mentality to that, people just started supporting you in ways you could have never imagined,” Slattery said.

Slattery said when the pandemic hit, everything the company had spent the past eight years building appeared to be coming to an end. Sales at its restaurant which generated around $30,000 per week decreased to $5,000. Its taproom which centered around active lifestyle events and produced approximately $40,000 per week could no longer function. With restaurants and bars closing, Fifty West’s distribution sales took a hit.

“As an owner of a company who had spent the past eight years solely focused on growth, I felt the rug had been pulled out from under me overnight,” Slattery said. “I could no longer sleep at night. Every night I’d lie awake hoping the nightmare would end, dreading going into work the next day as I said goodbye to yet another person who had helped build the company and had done nothing wrong to deserve losing their job.”

Among the changes Fifty West made, were the setup of two tents and a point-of-sale system for carryout service and beer. It set an initial goal of doing just $20,000 in business per week. Slattery said as each day passed orders increased. On May 2, something astonishing happened: Fifty West had done more than $20,000 in sales in just a single day.

“Not a single customer walked in the door,” Slattery said.

Before the pandemic Fifty West had about 70 employees. During the pandemic, the company reduced its workforce to approximately 15 people. Now it employs just more than 80 workers. An ice-skating rink is planned for later this year.

Slattery’s advice to others:

“With change comes opportunity and it’s up to you to seek and find that opportunity. I used to be scared of tomorrow where I didn’t know the answers and I wanted to wait for that world to come back,” he said. “Now I get excited about the possibilities.”

Featured image at top: Fifty West Brewing Company owner, Bobby Slattery, found new opportunity amidst what appeared to be a crisis for his growing business.

Fifty West is a Goering Center core member, and the Goering Center is sharing this content as part of its Business Courier supplement for the 2020 Family & Private Business Awards. View more of the digital supplement here.

About Fifty West Brewing Co.
Founded in 2012, Fifty West Brewing Co. is a microbrewery with a full-service restaurant, and a taproom featuring volleyball leagues, running groups, a canoe and kayak livery and a bike shop. Its beer garden is open from 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Online orders are accepted. Dogs, on a leash, are allowed in the beer garden. People of all ages, including children, are welcomed.

About the Goering Center for Family & Private Business
Established in 1989, the Goering Center serves more than 400 member companies, making it North America’s largest university-based educational non-profit center for family and private businesses. The Center’s mission is to nurture and educate family and private businesses to drive a vibrant economy. Affiliation with the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati provides access to a vast resource of business programing and expertise. Goering Center members receive real-world insights that enlighten, strengthen and prolong family and private business success. For more information on the Center, participation and membership visit goering.uc.edu.

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