Stealth Before Scale

“We had just started on the first module when we realised that we would have to go immediately to stage two, so we started building that. All at once we were producing, marketing and selling a new beer, while constructing a new brewery and doubling and tripling production. We reinvested old capital into the business again and again. When we launched in St Petersburg in 1999, we were still a secret. Nobody knew what we were doing. We never spoke about our plans. In those internet-boom days everyone, it seemed, was making bold claims about changing the world. We were exactly the opposite. We didn’t want to attract attention. We just started selling our beer the same day we started production. It was real and out in the market. We called it the ‘submarine strategy’ and deliberately planned it that way to surprise our rivals.”

“When we launched, St Petersburg was trying to build its reputation as a ‘beer capital’ and had a ‘beer day’, with the three main breweries selling their wares in Hermitage Square in front of the Winter Palace. We saw this event as an opportunity for our own kind of beer revolution. We went to the mayor’s department, told them that we now had a brewery and said we’d like a stand. They gave us some space but said no advertisements or bottles were allowed. There were rock bands and close to a million people turned up for a kind of one-day Oktoberfest, and we took the event by storm. We had just started rolling out our TV campaign and billboards but we didn’t have a marquee or anything like that. We just had 40-foot container lorries decked out with brilliant logos of our design, acting effectively as mobile billboards.”