The Dry Life: Athletic Brewing cofounders Bill Shufelt and John Walker. Bill Shufelt and John Walker are making nonalcoholic beers tasty enough to please the biggest sud snobs. And with a nearly $500 million valuation, investors are intoxicated. On a dreary Wednesday in January, Bill Shufelt, the cofounder and CEO of Athletic Brewing, grabs a yellow can of golden ale off the humming conveyor belt in his new 150,000-square-foot Milford, Connecticut, brewery and cracks it open. It’s 10 a.m.—but there’s no need for an intervention. Over the last few years, Shufelt, 39, and his cofounder John Walker, 42, have created the buzziest beer brand in America by creating craft brews without the buzz. Alcohol-free beer, often bland and thin, has long been seen as the brewer’s equivalent to decaf coffee or tofu turkey. Athletic Brewing is out to eliminate the stigma, making hoppy IPAs, crisp ales and toasty porters with the flavor and feel of a craft beer—but with less alcohol than a slice of rye bread. A six-pack costs about $10. “Humans have been drinking beer for more than 5,000 years,” says Shufelt, a former hedge fund trader who, a decade ago, gave up booze to improve his […]

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Bühler headquarters in Uzwil, Switzerland. UZWIL, SWITZERLAND — Bühler said in its 2022 annual report that it has largely returned to pre-pandemic business levels with a 10.3% turnover increase and a 35.7% boost in net profit. At the group level, the Uzwil, Switzerland-based business said order intake rose 8.7% to CHF 3.3 billion ($3.58 billion), while turnover increased to CHF 3 billion. Net profit increased to CHF 154 million, up from CHF 113 million a year ago. During the year, Bühler said it was able to mitigate effects of the war in Ukraine, tense supply chains, and soaring energy and raw material prices, while further improving its financial position with a high equity ratio and repaying the first tranche of its bond. The company continued to invest in innovation, new partnerships, and education and training. “The impressive dedication of our employees worldwide helped us to be agile, resilient, and creative, even in the face of increasing volatility and uncertainties,” said Stefan Scheiber, chief executive officer of Bühler. The growth in volume came mainly from the Advanced Materials business, where order intake increased by 41% to CHF 871 million, nearly doubling its volume within the last two years. The largest […]

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Zain Jaffer is the founder and president of Zain Ventures , a family office that invests in real estate and proptech. getty Anyone who has tried out ChatGPT in recent weeks will be amazed at the state of artificial intelligence (AI) in the world today. Recently, Microsoft announced that they would be investing $10 billion in OpenAI, the startup that created ChatGPT. Clearly, AI is the buzzword of the times. People have been predicting that AI could replace many of the mundane and repetitive tasks that we humans do. Eventually, it could get to the creative and innovative part of the human mind. Actually, ChatGPT can already give us an inkling of that. Some people have asked it to write an essay, a screenplay or other tasks that would normally require human thinking. One of the jobs some people worry AI could easily replace in the near future is the customer service representative. We already see one potential sign of this on some websites that feature helpdesk chatbots and make it hard to reach an actual human for help with a question. Since many customer service jobs involve answering questions that customers ask frequently, the oft-repeated answers could help […]

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‘If you’re a businessperson in Connecticut, there are connections now that you can use to create a more peaceful world’ Founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seen on a giant screen by video link at the Congress centre during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 23, 2022. (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images) The Russian invasion of Ukraine has captured the attention of Americans in ways that few other conflicts have, and created challenges that today’s business students will likely grapple with for the rest of their careers. That’s the perspective of two leading business-ethics scholars who will be the guest panelists during a Feb. 20 program called “Business, Peace and the War in Ukraine: One Year Later.’’ It is part of the School of Business’ Equity Now speaker series that addresses prominent justice and human rights issues in business. Professor Tim Fort of Indiana University and professor John Katsos of American University in Sharjah, will discuss the influence of multinational corporations on war and peace, with emphasis on how businesses addressed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They both believe that large corporations […]

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President (Pacific Division) of American Fashion Network (AFN) Christina Ongert stands before AFN’s recently-relocated Wisconsin office in downtown West Bend, 105 N. Main St., Suite 100. West Bend city documents WEST BEND — The Wisconsin office for American Fashion Network recently moved to downtown West Bend from the Historic Third Ward district in Milwaukee. President (Pacific Division) of American Fashion Network and West Bend resident Christina Ongert spearheaded the move of AFN’s Wisconsin office to its new location at 105 N. Main Street, Suite 100. “We were in the Third Ward for almost six years and we weren’t seeing as many people face-to-face or getting as many inquires in that space,” said Ongert. “And I live here in West Bend, and I’m in tune with the community and culture and values, and our company is really focused on nearshore and made-inthe- USA production. Living in a community like ours that values those things seemed like a good fit.” Ongert also said she hopes AFN can offer the community something unique with its full-service product development options. “We wanted to make ourselves more accessible to the community and their needs for more than just basic screen-printing, apparel, and embroidery, which […]

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Carl Gould is a business transformation expert with 7 Stage Advisors . His methodologies are practiced in over 35 countries. getty The desire to be better in the new year is nothing new. In fact, New Year’s resolutions can be traced back 4,000 years to the ancient Babylonians. Maybe those traditions were a little different than ours (no need for us to crown a new king, for example), but taking time to reflect on the past year and set goals for the year ahead is still a good use of time. In the corporate world, business owners and senior executives should set aside time in the first quarter to assess what happened in 2022 and map out the possibilities for their professional growth in 2023. Here are some tips to get you started. 1. Assess your strengths and weaknesses. If you consistently did well in some areas, this is the time to pat yourself on the back. But it’s also time to think about how you can spend more time doing the things that you do best. This sets you up for more success in the coming year. Conversely, you may be able to spot some repeated business mistakes. […]

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By Dan Lahl, Global Vice President of SAP Business Technology Platform Marketing & Solutions, SAP Despite an unstable business environment of supply chain pressures, inflation, skills gaps, and talk of recession, some midsize companies are not just surviving – they’re thriving. New products are innovated to attract broader market interest, while existing brands expand into additional markets, categories, and segments. In essence, the midmarket is where many innovations are being incubated and tested out for fast and agile success. According to the IDC InfoDoc, " A Guide to Growth ," these high-growth companies expect to increase their revenue and market share by nearly 11% within the next 12 months. Behind this expansion, the secret for 81% of these high-growth respondents lies in heavy investment in technology, such as ERP, data analytics, data management, automation, business networks, digital supply chains, power-user enablement, and various line-of-business solutions. As exciting as these outcomes may be, infusing multiple new technologies into an IT landscape could become too complicated, disconnected, and unwieldy to manage and use for future innovation. However, it’s possible to avoid this risk by leveraging a cloud-based business technology platform that services the above digital investments and provides the flexibility, extensibility, […]

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getty Just over a year ago, the company I started alongside my co-founder was acquired. This was both a short and long time coming: Any entrepreneur worth their salt will always be on the lookout for a valuable exit opportunity, but rarely do these opportunities evolve into something concrete. While my co-founder and I had been in discussions with the company that acquired us for years, there was still an incredible learning curve when it came to navigating the acquisition process. Despite almost always being on our radar, the acquisition highlighted both new challenges and opportunities for our company. Small businesses, in particular, face a unique set of challenges around an acquisition—especially when the potential parent company is much larger. Every company is for sale, always. One of my company’s board members once told me, “A CEO has two main jobs: raise money and sell the company.” What changes over time are the opportunities for exit and whether there’s a match between those opportunities and your goals. For most of the life of a company, you’re looking for that alignment and it isn’t there because it’s rare. That alignment can evolve, too, developing years later even if it wasn’t […]

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NFIB State Director Rosemary Elebash says the latest NFIB Small Business Optimism Index underscores the challenges that continue to face local businesses throughout Alabama. “Small business owners need certainty. They don’t want to invest in new equipment or grow their staffs unless they believe the economy is healthy and likely to stay that way, but global issues like inflation and supply chain disruptions continue to undermine their confidence,” Elebash said. “On top of that, many of our members say they’re still having trouble finding people to work, which is causing them to cut back on the services they provide and their hours of operation.” The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index increased 0.5 points in January to 90.3, remaining below the 49-year average of 98. Down six points from last month, 26 percent of owners reported inflation was their single most important problem in operating their business. Owners expecting better business conditions over the next six months improved six points from December to a net negative 45 percent. ”While inflation is starting to ease for small businesses, owners remain cynical about future business conditions,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “Owners have a negative outlook on the small business economy […]

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Smithfield Foods will close their Vernon, California, Farmer John processing plant this month, according to a statement from the company . Smithfield Foods announced in June 2022 that they would be ceasing operations at the California plant at the beginning of this year while simultaneously reducing Western region production. The company plans to decrease its sow herd in Utah and exit farms in Arizona and California. Industry sources estimate the facility’s daily processing capacity was roughly 8,000 to 10,000 company-owned hogs each day. Customers in California will continue to be serviced with products from existing facilities in the Midwest. Brady Stewart, chief operating officer of Smithfield Foods, thanked team members for their dedication to the western region and committed to “providing financial and other transition assistance to employees impacted by this difficult decision.” California relies almost entirely on out-of-state hogs to fulfill their needs. The state’s Proposition 12 legislation passed in 2018 requires sows to have a minimum of 24 square feet of space per animal. The law is awaiting a final decision from the Supreme Court after the American Farm Bureau Federation and National Pork Producers Council presented oral arguments last fall. A decreased national hog herd observed […]

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