Inspiring Mama: Wynne Odell of Odell Brewing Co.

We have been enjoying the fine beer from Odell Brewing Company for a number of years. I had the chance to see Wynne Odell, owner of the brewery, speak a few months ago and it really got me thinking about how a business can have a positive effect on its community. Not only does Odell Brewing Company produce a high quality product but they understand their place in the lives of their employees, customers, and the community at large.

The brewery has made a major investment in being green, they give back to the community in many ways, and most importantly they share many of the same values as our family business. Their success, well managed growth, and ability to stay down to earth is really something that I appreciate. So grab a 5 Barrel Pale Ale or Easy Street Wheat and enjoy this glimpse into the life of Inspiring Mama Wynne Odell.

Andy: Thank you for taking the time for this interview. We absolutely love your beer and I have a great deal of respect for the way your company has grown. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to start a Craft Brewery?

Wynne: I grew up in Cleveland, but left to go to college in Walla Walla, WA and then to business school in Seattle, which is where I met my husband, Doug. In 1986 , after we had our first child, I was working in banking and Doug was running a one-man landscaping business. Neither of us were particularly excited about our work, so we looked at Doug’s homebrewing hobby, which had pretty much taken over our 600 sq ft house, and thought hmm…., maybe there’s something there. Doug travelled around the Northwest visiting breweries, all of which were extremely open in sharing their successes and failures, and I wrote up a business plan. Doug’s sister, Corkie, our brewery business partner, lived in Fort Collins at the time and convinced us to move down here to open our brewery. Doug and Corkie’s folks helped us renovate an old grain elevator building and we were off and running.

Andy: Your story is especially inspiring to me as I am working very hard to build my own company. What advice would you give to our readers who many be thinking of starting their own business?

Wynne: Nothing new here, but:

Pick something you love to do because you’re going to be spending an awful lot of time doing it. For us it was an easy choice: Doug loves everything about beer and I love everything about small business management.

Bootstrap it: We only had three stockholders, so didn’t have to contend with the random interests of a raft of investors who weren’t involved in the management of the business. We also made much smarter decisions about how to invest our money because we had so little of it. We’ve been profitable from year one and debt free for most of our 20 year existence.

Andy: The Brewery has seen tremendous success over the years. Other businesses struggle to keep from 'selling out' as they grow, how have you managed the success and growth while still keeping true to the mission of your company?

Wynne: I love this question. A while back our Board, which is comprised of Doug, Corkie and me, sat down to create a formal Vision statement for our business. We always knew we were doing something right, but hadn’t successfully articulated what that “ something” was. We became frustrated as we discussed it, because we had no clear agreement on how big we wanted to get or how broadly we wanted to distribute our beer: everything we threw out as we brainstormed was more value based than metric based. And then it all clicked – we believe our business is successful because of a strongly shared set of values that everyone who works with us believes in and lives by. So our resulting Vision statement is summarized as: Our values help us to support and celebrate what’s most important to us – our beer and our people - and our beer and our people then work together to create value for our customers.

Andy: The brewery just completed a major expansion. The building was constructed with the environment in mind including solar panels, porous concrete to reduce rain runoff, and many other energy saving features. Why has Odell Brewing Company made such a large investment into being green?

Wynne: Our commitment to sustainability is one of the shared values I refer to above. Our full blown Vision also includes the statement : [we are] responsible to our community. We define community as co-workers, customers, vendors and physical communities in which we sell our beer. Part of that responsibility is to protect and promote the quality of life in and for all our communities. As a manufacturing business, we use more resources than many other businesses but that heavy resource use also gives us a bigger opportunity to make a difference. We have goals built around water, energy and material use, working always to minimize our impact on the environment.

Andy: Thank you, Wynne, for taking the time to share this inspiring story with the readers of Hip Mountain Mama.

If you would like more information about Odell Brewing Company please visit their website. If you don't live in one of the 9 states they currently distribute to, I recommend you look them up when you get the chance.

~Andy

Inspiring Mama: Wynne Odell of Odell Brewing Co.