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DearTribe Members,
As is customary at the change of year, there is time for reflection, gratitude, and refocus before we dive into the opportunities ahead of us in 2024.
First and foremost, we want to thank you for your support in last year. 2023 was our record year as a company due to a full 12 months of operation of our 2 pubs, and positive progress in our out-of-pub and partnership channels. This wouldn’t be possible without our customers, and engagement with friends, colleagues and shareholders alike. As a small business we value these personal dialogues highly, and endeavour to keep honing our product in all that we due, whilst providing clarity on any questions and queries.
As a business, we continue to grow, and actively strive for further growth. At the heart of our vision is further pubs, serving neighbourhoods and customers great beer in Hamburg and beyond. We are proud and excited to share that in the final days of 2023 we have signed a rental agreement for our 3rd location. More information on that very exciting project and the outlook for 2024 will follow in a further post, as will the Q4 and FY 2023 performance data (on completion of the annual financial statements), but first, we’d like to review some of the key developments and highlights of an eventful 2023.
We completed, almost 12 months after its initiation, the final steps of the crowdfund, and the issuance of new shares to those shareholders through the Seedrs platform. Those 150+ Investors are now an important part of our business, and we look forward to engaging with them as much as possible in the years to come, and, of course, to ensuring that they see a real benefit from their investment. Each and every Investor is featured on our 'Goat Wall' which hangs in The Baby Goat Barn, St Pauli. It serves as a small reminder of the achievement, and the people who allowed us to achieve this goal.
The Baby Goat Barn in St Pauli has now been functional since May 2022. We are satisfied with its progress since opening, and reassured that there is still ‘Luft nach Oben’ to be pursued. It’s a concept with great potential, and has been refined this year to adapt service styles and optimise our offering for our customers and target groups. Mastering seasonality, staff schedules & process optimisation will be key in the year to come.
The Baby Goat House in Grindelhof has now been a feature of its neighbourhood for over 3years, and we are proud that it continues to attract and serve a local crowd on the search for good beer. The sprawling terrace is a sight to behold in summers and regular events offer something for everyone. This year we handled the unexpected turnover of 2 key member of staff, including our long-term and highly-valued Pub manager. The team as a whole came together remarkably to bring us through that phase, and we now have a wonderful new manager in place who is bringing fresh energy to the role.
We brewed 8 beer styles alongside our core list of 6-8 regular beers. This included the highlights of our New England IPA, ‘Three’ and our customer-favourite ‘Goat ‘Ol Dayz’ Hazy IPA, as well as a dark, intense Belgian Dubbel as a treat for the winter beer lovers. We continue to explore in the world of beer, while staying true to our central beer philosophy - drinkability and great taste. One notable addition was our 'Sober Goat' Alcohol Free Pale Ale. Our first venture into the world of Alcohol Free beer, and a real hit just in time for Dry January.
Distribution in Germany remains a challenging channel for smaller brands, but we are delighted to continue working with a small but growing list of independent gastronomy clients, and their feedback and loyalty are invaluable to us as we continue to expand in this field. The search for a suitable ‘Großhandel’ (wholesale distribution) partner remains challenging and was therefore not the highest priority for 2023, we deem it necessary to grow our brand awareness before launching wholeheartedly and effectively into this space. That said, our network and understanding of that sector has grown measurably, and as we scale, we can seek to reach a cost of production which will allow us to meet a desirable price point, which is the most critical factor for retailers in a challenging competitor set of large, industrial scale breweries. We remain motivated and optimistic on the opportunity here.
Internationally, Our session IPA, ‘Shave It Off’ was featured as part of a German Beer package with the UK subscription service beer52.com. That project was just an initial step towards bringing our beer outside of our German borders, but is something to be built on in 2024, and we welcome suggestions of local beer importers with whom we can begin discussions on working relationships (British GOATs, your input is most welcome here).
Very promising has been our work in the corporate space, and we are delighted to now be working with both the Digital Logistics Hub and The Factory Hammerbrooklyn as an official beer partner - affording us the opportunity to provide well-deserving members with afterwork drinks and tastings through our custom beer fridges and regular events. We also featured at 4 (beer & cultural)festivals this year with our ‘Pop Up Pub’. Those are pure marketing activities which we will also expand on in the coming year as the public event calendar continues to grow.
Our team has now grown to include 12 fixed and 17 part-time employees and although turnover is to be expected in our sector, particularly in the part-time resource, we have great reliability and skill in our team. Valuable lessons have been learned, and the volume of work has required focus on clearer designation and separation of responsibilities, but the ‘start-up’ spirit remains critical in ensuring we meet deadlines and fulfil projects.
And…in amongst the all-encompassing, never-sleeping world of brewing and hospitality, both Chris and Thomas welcomed baby daughters (proper baby goats) to the world. Those milestones are cherished, and naturally time is taken to enjoy those moments, but it also provides nothing but further motivation to continue the exciting journey we are on together.
So, 2023, a year with much to report, and we enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on our progress over a beer. But not for too long, as our biggest project yet awaits us in early 2024, and there really is no time to waste…
Look forward to our next update.
And until then, all our best regards,
Chris & Thomas
