E-Malt.com News article: Canada, AB: Co-owners of Mountain Crest Brewing and Minhas Craft Brewery are making their own way.

In business, as in life, what doesn't bring you down builds you up.

It's a lesson that can take many, many years to learn.

But for Calgary siblings Manjit and Ravinder Minhas the tough lessons came early which is why they are now some of the youngest brewery barons on the planet, The Calgary Herald reported July, 31.

As teenagers, the pair set out selling bottles of booze to liquor stores, bars and restaurants around the city.

A decade later they are owners of North America's 11th largest brewery and their cut-price beer brands are being snatched up in ever increasing quantities across four provinces and 30 states.

And they built this C$120-million business without borrowing a single penny.

"We've no debt, no partners, no mortgages. If we cannot afford it we are not going to do it," said 29-year-old Ravinder.

His sister credits their upbringing for such zeal in paying cash rather than relying on leverage.

"It's a very old-fashioned philosophy. My parents were born and raised in India and they'd only buy what they could afford. We were taught that too. Living beyond your means is really no way to live," said Manjit, 31.

The pair, co-owners of Mountain Crest Brewing and Minhas Craft Brewery, got started in the booze business while both were studying engineering at the University of Calgary.

"We started when I was 18 and Manjit was 19. Before that our parents used to own retail liquor stores in Alberta so we grew up around the industry.

"We began with hard liquor; rum, rye and brandy. Within six months we brought in tequila and we were really handy selling that to bars, restaurants and licensees of the liquor stores," said Ravinder.

They then learned a hard lesson which cemented the values they'd been taught at home.

"After 60 days we were starving for cash and we thought: 'Oh man what are we going to do.' So we went to the bank for a loan.

"They asked about assets. If we had a house, if we owned our offices. We really didn't have anything. We had started with C$10,000 and now we were asking for C$60,000.

"We didn't get the loan and that day we decided we'd try to manage this internally.

"So when we did come out on the other side we realized here was the cornerstone of our business.

"We've never had a loan, never had a partner, and never had an investor. Even to this day. Not even our parents," said Ravinder.

The pair got their biggest break when a rumoured failure of the blue agave crop in Mexico caused tequila prices to spike to C$40 a bottle.

"The industry in 2002 claimed there was this big shortage. We checked with our suppliers and we didn't think it was going to be as bad.

"We harvested a lot and kept our bottles at 24 bucks as everyone else went to 40. We took over so much market share and that gave us our pool to start with," added Ravinder.

Then they got bitten by the beer bug.

"Beer is what has catapulted us to the next level. It's now what we are known for," added Manjit.

The pair developed a recipe for their own brew, using local malt as the base ingredient.

" We went to all the brewers in Alberta and Saskatchewan and said: 'brew this beer for us, here's our recipe'," recalled Ravinder.

Everyone refused; such was the power and influence of the major breweries in Canada.

"So then we went south of the border. We found an under-utilized brewery, shipped malt from Alberta and Saskatchewan and then beer back to Alberta," added Ravinder.

The beer was Mountain Crest and soon the youngsters again ran into the power of the major breweries.

"Our competitors were strong in making sure retailers didn't carry our beer in Calgary and Edmonton but we realized this wasn't the case in the rural market.

"Lloydminster, Red Deer, Airdrie, Cochrane: this was where we found our pockets," said Ravinder.

Soon city people were picking up Mountain Crest on camping trips and asking their local stores why they didn't stock it.

"Suddenly in Edmonton and Calgary the independent liquor stores were saying: 'OK what's this Mountain Crest?'

"That's when we started marketing it as Damn Good Beer. We had market share in the rural and demand in the city so we saw the opportunity," said Ravinder.

In 2006 they bought out the Monroe, Wisconsin brewery they'd been using to brew beer and invested C$15 million more to increase capacity.

By then they were selling Mountain Crest and Boxer at a buck a beer in the three Prairie provinces and beginning a long fight to get into Ontario.

"It took five years mainly because Molson's and Labatt's are such a strong presence ... which makes it very hard to get your foot in the door," said Ravinder.

Eventually they won out and their beer is for sale across Ontario as the pair looks towards the Maritimes and Quebec as well as expanding beyond the 30 states they already serve.

Such expansion has made them, at 31 and 29, some of the youngest brewery owners in the world and Manjit the only woman who owns a large brewery.

"I absolutely understand what other women can go through in our industry.

"I do my best to mentor other women. I speak to many organizations to let young girls, and women of any age know you can get ahead in any industry. It's OK if they are all male, if they are all white.

"There is no such thing as not getting your foot in the door. There's always a way.

People can see that with us," said Manjit, now the mother of a two-year-old daughter, Ikjot.

"When we started, our age was the biggest hurdle so we learned very quickly to dress professionally and be very professional in our mannerisms and have research behind us that you wouldn't believe," she added.

Are they ready to take a break? Slow down a little? Go public and reap the rewards?

"We'd never go public. We'd have to focus on pleasing shareholders instead of running the company the way we know it should be run," said Ravinder.

His older sister agreed. "We are a C$120-million dollar company right now. But we are nowhere near done. There are lots of things we still want to do."

05 August, 2011