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Owner Carlos Alvarez founded Gambrinus in 1986 and serves as its president and CEO.
Officers:
Chairman, President, and CEO: Carlos E. Alvarez
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The company is owned by its chief executive officer, Carlos Alvarez, who was instrumental in introducing the Mexican beer Corona Extra to the United States.
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The founder and owner of The Gambrinus Company, Carlos Alvarez, grew up in Acapulco, Mexico.
He went to work for the Modelo brewery, located in Mexico City, starting out in the sales department.
By the late-1970s he had risen to become the company's export director.
He convinced Modelo to sell its Corona Extra beer outside of Mexico.
First imported to the United States in 1981, Corona caught on mostly with a younger demographic and soon enjoyed explosive growth.
By 1985 sales reached five million cases.
A year later 13 million cases of Corona were sold in the United States.
It was in 1986 that Alvarez left Modelo to distribute Corona on his own, creating The Gambrinus Company, named after the mythic Flemish king known for his love of beer.
Alvarez was granted Corona distribution rights in Texas and 24 eastern states.
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Alvarez became aware of Spoetzl's signature beer, Shiner Bock, when using Austin as a test market for Corona.
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Alvarez began negotiations to buy the brewery from the Great Texas Brewing Company, created by a group of Houston investors who had purchased Spoetzl in 1984 and were now looking to sell.
One of the partners, who was devoted to the brewery almost to the point of obsession, however, refused to sell and went to court to block the Gambrinus deal.
Eventually Alvarez would have to pay $3.5 million for an operation that, based on its annual revenues, was worth around $1 million.
In the end, he paid the price because he liked the beer.
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Although Alvarez had no intention of tampering with the brewing process, he made other changes as soon as Gambrinus took over the Spoetzl Brewery.
He canceled all of the contracts to brew other companies' brands, even though the work amounted to one-quarter of the brewery's annual revenues.
Alvarez anticipated that he would need all of his production capacity to support the projected demand in Shiner beers.
He also canceled all out-of-state agreements for Shiner beers, which had been sold to anyone willing to buy a shipment, even as far away as Arizona and Ohio.
Alvarez wanted to make sure that the product was handled properly, and so for the sake of quality control and long-term growth he contracted the sales territory.
Finally, and to some observers the most surprising move, he immediately raised the price of Shiner beer, which under the previous owners had cost less than Budweiser and now cost 75 percent more.
Alvarez wanted to position the product in the premium category, and although Shiner beer had a loyal following that might be disenfranchised, it was small, and Gambrinus stood to gain considerably by establishing the higher price with customers unfamiliar with the brand.
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