Business Spotlight: Wil Fischer Distributing draws 65% market share

Most business owners are concerned about increasing their market share. For Jeff Gower, the task of increasing sales and expanding his company's market share has to be approached with care. Gower is the president and chief executive officer of Wil Fischer Distributing, a wholesale beer distributor for Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis.

"The biggest challenge we face, and will always face, is selling a legal product to responsible beer drinkers while still increasing sales," Gower said.

That's not easy to achieve, if you stop to think about it. Yet, Wil Fischer Distributing has managed to do just that, according to Gower, and in 1999, the company achieved its highest sales level to date.

Wil Fischer Distributing dates back to 1966, when executives at Anheuser-Busch began looking for someone to take over distribution operations in the Springfield area. Wil Fischer, a local Oldsmobile dealer, applied for and received the Anheuser-Busch distributorship, and Wil Fischer Distributing Co. was born.

Fischer's distribution area covered Greene, Webster, Christian, Taney, Stone and Polk counties, and he quickly set out to increase Anheuser-Busch's market share. Originally, the distributorship was located on College Street, but in 1969, Fischer moved to a new location off of West Bypass.

At the time, the company was located on the outskirts of Springfield. This suited Fischer just fine, because his delivery trucks didn't spend a lot of time tied up in city traffic, and he liked to say there were only three traffic lights between his building and the brewery in St. Louis.

In the early 1980s, Fischer approached his son-in-law, Jeff Gower, and asked him if he might be interested in taking over the family business someday. Gower was surprised and intrigued by the idea. He didn't have a business background. In fact, he had been working as an orthodontist since 1976.

In 1982, Gower decided to test the waters and began working part-time alongside his father-in-law. Gower quickly discovered that he had a good working relationship with his father-in-law, and he gradually began to phase out his dental practice.

Gower became the president and CEO of the company in 1988 when Fischer was diagnosed with cancer. Around this same time, the company reached a turning point. Business in the area had increased, and a bigger warehouse and more staff were needed.

"Anheuser-Busch developed a Dimensions of Excellence program for its distributors to follow, and I decided to use that as my blueprint for expanding the business," Gower said. "The program is set up so you are your own competitor, and it pushes you to do a little bit better every year in terms of sales, service, warehousing and community involvement."

Gower began plowing much of the company's profits back into the business. The size of the warehouse increased, additional staff members were hired and more trucks were added to the fleet.

However, expanding a business on all fronts was not only expensive, it was risky. The beer industry was changing.

When Fischer founded the company in 1966, almost every major city in the United States had its own brewery. Over the years, consolidations, mergers and bad business reduced the number of breweries from a thousand to around 200, according to Gower.

The number of wholesalers nationwide also had decreased. When Gower first joined the business, Springfield had five beer wholesalers. Now, there are three beer wholesalers and distributors in the city, including Wil Fischer Distributing.

"You can't just get by in this business," Gower said. "Either you're moving forward or you're losing ground."

Gower has applied this philosophy to Wil Fischer Distributing. The company received the Dimension of Excellence award given out by Anheuser-Busch from 1988 to 1994. According to Gower, this award normally is given out to large wholesalers and distributors because of the money and manpower required.

Although Gower didn't set out to become a businessman, he has managed to make a successful transition. When he joined Wil Fischer in 1982, the company had a 32 percent market share within its six-county territory. Today, the company has a 65 percent market share. Draft beer sales have increased, also, and the staff size has grown from 15 to 70, according to Gower.

During this same period, the company's warehouse expanded from 9,000 square feet to more than 100,000 square feet. According to Gower, another 6,000 square feet will be added later this year. The number of route trucks has increased, from seven to 22, bringing the total number in the fleet to 45.

Interestingly enough, the size of the territory covered by Wil Fischer Distributing hasn't increased since 1966. However, the population has grown, and the number of chain restaurants that serve beer in the Springfield/Branson area has increased significantly in the past five years. According to Gower, expanding the business on all fronts allowed Wil Fischer Distributing to offer better service, which helped win over retailers previously served by other beer distributorships.

Given the market share Wil Fischer Distributing already commands, Gower said he expects that yearly sales will increase by 2 percent to 3 percent during the next five years. However, even small-scale expansion is done with care.

"We're part of this community, and we have a responsibility to the people who live here and the businesses who buy our product," Gower said.

In the future, the company will continue to train retailers on how to spot fake IDs, as well as funding an outreach program called Wasted, which it has run since 1985. Laurie Easter, RN, conducts the Wasted program in high schools in and around Springfield, which is designed to make teenagers think about the consequences of underage drinking and alcohol abuse.

Wil Fischer Distributing

Year founded: 1966

Owner's name: Wil Fischer Distributing Inc.

Address and phone number: 3539 W. Farm Road 142, Springfield, Mo. 65807; 862-4341