The Perfect Brew: How New Belgium Streamlined Growth with Flintfox by Enable
The Company
New Belgium Brewing Company, founded in 1991 by Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch in Fort Collins, Colorado, grew from humble home-brewing origins—earning just around $150,000 in its first year—into one of the most recognized names in American craft beer. By 2015, New Belgium had expanded distribution across all 50 U.S. states and achieved estimated annual revenues of approximately $245 million. Today, as part of parent company Lion Nathan, New Belgium continues to innovate and scale, powered by popular brands like Fat Tire and Voodoo Ranger.
The Challenges
Manual Processes Limiting Efficiency
New Belgium Brewing initially managed its pricing, promotions, and rebate programs using spreadsheets. While functional, this manual process lacked visibility and consistency across the organization, creating inefficiencies and financial uncertainty. Discounts were tracked through Excel files requiring frequent updates and biweekly email communications with the sales team. This approach made it difficult to accurately estimate monthly liabilities and manage cash flow, especially as the business scaled.
Preparing for Expansion
With the opening of a new facility on the horizon, leadership recognized the need for a more robust solution that could be easily adopted across departments. The sales team, in particular, wanted to spend less time reconciling spreadsheets and more time focusing on customer relationships and driving growth.
“New Belgium was having trouble capturing its monthly liabilities associated with some of our customers. We used Excel spreadsheets heavily in order to capture this activity, and at best they were estimates. Utilizing Flintfox by Enable allows us to eliminate that entire process,” says Jess Askey, Technology Solutions Manager at New Belgium Brewing.
The Platform
Why Flintfox by Enable?
New Belgium selected Flintfox by Enable to modernize its rebate and trade spend management, improve forecasting, and mitigate financial risks. The platform provided the visibility and automation they needed to replace spreadsheets and manual communications, while aligning sales and finance teams on one trusted source of data.
Seamless ERP Integration
By integrating Flintfox by Enable with their ERP system, New Belgium gained the ability to manage trade agreements more effectively, track promotion performance, and strengthen customer relationships. Rule-based pricing configurations allowed them to support both volume-based and percentage discounting without manual intervention.
Forecasting
Flintfox by Enable’s forecasting capabilities also proved crucial for New Belgium’s expansion. Before its Asheville, North Carolina facility was complete, the company could simulate production plans at the item level across both breweries, ensuring smoother planning and improved profitability.
Results with Flintfox by Enable
Flintfox by Enable has simplified New Belgium’s sales and operations by delivering transparency, automation, and actionable insights across trade spend programs. With the platform, the company is able to:
- Forecast production for both Colorado and Asheville breweries.
- Use Flintfox by Enable in budget planning to leverage revenue management intelligence for future accruals.
- Empower the sales team to focus on selling rather than month-end spreadsheet reconciliations.
- Update deals and promotions in real time, eliminating manual changes across multiple systems.
- Track liabilities more accurately and manage cash flow around invoices.
- Analyze individual product profitability and promotion performance.
By shifting away from spreadsheets and onto Flintfox by Enable, New Belgium Brewing has positioned itself for continued growth and operational excellence, while ensuring that its teams have the tools they need to focus on what they do best: crafting great beer and building strong customer relationships.
“Flintfox by Enable has changed the way we manage pricing and promotions, keeping our data organized and easily accessible while allowing us to execute price changes quickly and efficiently. Flintfox by Enable makes it seamless to add new products, regions, distribution channels, and customers.”
Melisse Merrell, Business Systems Analyst – New Belgium Brewing Company
‘Flintfox by Enable and Microsoft helped us strategize how to better manage advanced pricing, promotion management, and complex supply chain pricing, as well as provide a roadmap for the future.’
Joshua Motsuenyane Chief Information Officer, Coca Cola Beverages Africa
‘Our members now experience the advantages of receiving financial information promptly. This timely data has a direct impact on expediting the return of their funds and streamlining the distribution process. It also allows us to make informed decisions about when to de-list core suppliers. By redirecting efforts from suppliers yielding no return to focusing on our core suppliers, we ensure a more efficient and effective operation.’
Clare Greensmith Financial Controller
‘With this shift in perspective, we aim to uncover additional functionalities and capabilities that Enable can offer to further enhance our efficiency and drive strategic initiatives. This marks an exciting phase in our engagement with Enable, as we seek to extract maximum value and leverage its features for broader internal and external benefits. The focus on efficiency aligns with the broader objective of providing an optimized and valuable service to our members.’
Katrina Crabtree Head of Commercial and Data
‘The most important thing we like about Enable is the transparency and the clear vision it brings to rebates. It’s all about getting rebates in the right place for all customers.’
Eamonn Korak Credit Manager
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