Business description of THE-BOSTON-BEER-COMPANY-INC from last 10-k form

In addition to the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the risks described below should be carefully considered before deciding to invest in shares of the Company’s Class A Common Stock. These are risks and uncertainties that management believes are most likely to be material and therefore are most important for an investor to consider. The Company’s business operations and results may also be adversely affected by additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to it, or which it currently deems immaterial, or which are similar to those faced by other companies in its industry or business in general. If any of the following risks or uncertainties actually occurs, the Company’s business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows would likely suffer. In that event, the market price of the Company’s Class A Common Stock could decline.

The Company Faces Substantial Competition.

The Better Beer category within the United States beer market is highly competitive, due to the large number of craft brewers with similar pricing and target drinkers and gains in market share achieved by imported beers, a number of which are now imported and promoted by the two largest domestic brewing companies, AB InBev and MillerCoors. The Company faces strong competition from these two brewers as they introduce new domestic specialty and “faux craft” brands to many markets and expand their efforts behind existing brands. Imported beers, such as Corona^® and Heineken^®, continue to compete aggressively in the United States beer market. Samuel Adams is one of the largest brands in the Better Beer category of the United States brewing industry, trailing Corona^® and Heineken^®. The Company anticipates competition among domestic craft brewers to remain strong, as craft brewers experienced their seventh successive year of growth in 2011 and there were many new startups. In 2011, the Company estimates there are approximately 770 shipping craft breweries, up from approximately 420 craft breweries in 2006. There are also approximately 800 new craft breweries in planning stages that will likely result in an additional 300 or more shipping craft breweries in the next 2 to 3 years. Also, existing craft breweries are building more capacity, expanding geographically, adding more SKUs and styles as distributors and retailers are promoting and making more shelf space available for more craft beer brands. The continued growth in the sales of craft-brewed domestic beers and in imported beers is expected to increase the competition in the Better Beer category within the United States beer market and, as a result, prices and market share of the Company’s products may fluctuate and possibly decline. No assurance can be given that any decline in price would be offset by an increase in market share.

The Company’s products, including its Twisted Tea products, also compete generally with other alcoholic beverages. The Company competes with other beer and beverage companies not only for drinker acceptance and loyalty, but also for shelf, cold box and tap space in retail establishments and for marketing focus by the Company’s distributors and their customers, all of which also distribute and sell other beers and alcoholic beverage products. Many of the Company’s competitors, including Corona^®, Heineken^®, AB InBev and MillerCoors, have substantially greater financial resources, marketing strength and distribution networks than the Company. Moreover, the introduction of new products by competitors that compete directly with the Company’s products or that diminish the importance of the Company’s products to retailers or distributors may have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations, cash flows and financial position.

Further, in recent years, the beer industry has seen continued consolidation among brewers in order to take advantage of cost savings opportunities for supplies, distribution and operations. Illustrative of this consolidation are the domestic joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors and the acquisition of Anheuser Busch by InBev, both of which occurred in 2008, and the acquisition of FEMSA Cerveza by Heineken in 2010. Due to the increased leverage that these combined operations will have, the costs to the Company of competing could increase and the availability of brewing capacity could be reduced. The potential also exists for MillerCoors, AB InBev and Heineken to increase their influence with their distributors, making it difficult for smaller brewers to

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