overview

Doug Constantiner founded Societe Brewing Company in 2012 to have a career in a field he loved: beer. In the 10 years since the brewery opened its doors, it’s become much more than a source of income. From 2020 to 2021 Societe grew its production by 93%, and since then, has opened a second location and expanded its distribution to Northern California. In the same time frame, Societe has seen its best day, week, month, and quarter ever. Societe is looking at growing “just as fast as we possibly can,” according to Sales Operations Manager Tyler Davis. That includes expanding distribution into other states like Arizona and Nevada. Plus, the team has a renovation underway at its newest location that will feature a full retail shop and vastly bigger taproom in 2023. 

When it comes to its business, Societe follows a simple mantra: “Our philosophy has always been a mile deep and an inch wide rather than a mile wide and an inch deep,” says Teddy Gowan, VP of Brewing. That means Soiecte is constantly tweaking, learning, and iterating. And while Societe does brew an accompanying core light beer and feels passionate about some Belgian styles, “the majority of our focus and volume is in hoppy beers,” says Gowan. “San Diego is still a pretty big IPA town, and we love making IPA.”

challenge

With almost fifteen years of history in one of America’s craft beer meccas in San Diego, Societe has seen the craft beer industry change significantly. Riding the height of the craft beer movement in the early 2010s, Societe eventually crested during the pandemic and is now moving forward.

As the brewery has grown, so has its approach to running a business. “You have to get a little grittier and be smart about investments and time,” says Gowan, who joined the company twelve years ago. “If you pay attention to the right thing and you focus on the quality, it seems you’ll succeed.” But Gowan says he wasn’t always able to efficiently run at that level of scrutiny and data analysis.
With multiple teams to manage, from sales to operations to front-of-house, each with their own spreadsheets and ways of tracking their department, Gowan says Societe needed a hub, a connection point for everyone within the business.

results

Societe has seen massive growth using Ekos to power its sales, forecasting, and inventory processes. “Ekos has helped us a ton to be able to scale and get bigger,” Tyler said. “Every day we’re finding out something new about it, another way to use it.” Societe’s new location and production growth have proven the benefits of good data on the business — something Tyler and his teams are committed to providing.

“We say Ekos is our universal source of truth,” says Gowan, who joined Societe right after its second anniversary and who was a very early adopter of Ekos. “It’s the key connection point between sales, operations, and brewing.” With so many teams running their own spaces, Gowan says Ekos is crucial to ensure they all communicate with each other efficiently.

Keeping the Gears Turning

Tyler says that using Ekos to crank out invoicing and stay on top of forecasting for the brewery’s distributors helps the business’s operations run smoothly. In turn, that keeps Tyler, the sales team, and the production team on track to meet Societe’s big goals. “Ekos is our backbone, really. We have a saying around the brewery: ‘Ekos is the Bible,’” Tyler said. “When it really comes down to it, all of our business funnels down into Ekos… it’s our lifeblood, it’s what helps us succeed. Ekos is what helps us get beer out the door every single day.”

Simplifying Communication

As the business grows, cross-team communication becomes even more important, something Tyler has seen firsthand. With Ekos, everyone from the brewhouse to the taproom is in the know, every day. “When I have a question and I don’t need to go ask another department, that shows our success with Ekos,” Tyler said. “When everybody is putting their information in and Ekos is spitting out exactly what you need, that’s huge.” Tyler says this is especially clear when he’s on the hunt for inventory to send off to distributors or looking to plan the brewery’s next packaging run. Checking the schedules the production team has already set and planning when their next run will be ready allows Tyler to make smart business decisions using data from Ekos. 

Understanding COGS

By using Ekos’ robust inventory and reporting features, Gowan can make smarter business decisions and identify and correct inefficiencies. For instance, he says
he’s now at the point with Ekos where he can see if a purchase order comes in and they’ve charged him differently. “Basically, by the next day, I can see that this input cost went up,” explains Gowan, who can then make an informed decision about how to adjust accordingly.

With the cost of cans, especially, Gowan says Ekos has been paramount. “I get an email every other week if there’s been an adjustment, so I can go into Ekos and see the true implications,” says Gowan, who calls it helpful to keep an eye on all those little things that can eventually add up to something bigger. “[Ekos] allows you to look at other places and strategize where you can get things to drop down without having to sacrifice quality.”

To achieve the same result before, Gowan had to perform what he called “tweezer work,” digging into every single batch and item report to put the cost into a spreadsheet. “Now [Ekos] does it for us automatically,” he says. “It’s hard to put a number on it, but it’s a lot quicker now because we don’t have to tweezer out the information.” Instead, Gowan just gets an email that tells him what he needs to know, and “I can dig into what’s out of spec and figure out what we need to do.”The extra time and efficiency have a trickle-down effect on the business, according to Gowan, who says these decisions became “super valuable to the bottom line of the business and to the team.”

With a better understanding of the bottom line, Societe’s brewing team can now be more creative because they have an accurate depiction of their cost inputs. “It becomes a chemistry problem,” he explains. “You’re not just trying to make the cheapest beer possible, you’re trying to make the best possible beer with the best cost inputs.” He adds, “It’s driven a lot of innovation.” In the future, Gowan thinks he can discover even more helpful features within the Ekos ecosystem. “It’s like Shrek and the onion,” he says. “There are so many layers!”

A Connected Business

Tyler says he’s worked at breweries that were pieced together with sticky notes and complex spreadsheets — that is just not the way. “One error, one bad formula, and you can really screw things up,” he said. Ekos, by comparison, is saving the team tons of time that they might’ve spent tracking down data or fixing a spreadsheet error. “When everyone’s done their part to make sure the information is in there, it’s invaluable. It saves a ton of time,” Tyler said. 

Saving on Kegs

Beyond the time savings, Ekos is saving Societe money on lost kegs too. “Recently, we got into a place where we haven’t had enough sixth barrel shells and it’s been a huge pain in our side,” Tyler said. Tyler is now responsible for tracking the ins and outs of Societe’s kegs via Ekos which he says is “absolutely vital” when considering the cost of replacing kegs. “I think some breweries probably get torpedoed by having issues with tracking their keg fleet — it’s super important,” Tyler said.

With returning fan-favorite beers, renovations, and expanding distribution, Tyler is really looking forward to this next year with Societe. He’s been a “fanboy” since the brewery opened its doors, so to help lead the team in this next phase of growth means a lot to him. With Ekos as a trusted partner by their side, Societe has high expectations for the future.