Emerging from two of the toughest years imaginable with nothing to show for it except losses piled upon losses, the idea of getting a new prospectus underway was a gutsy idea at best. Regardless, it was what must happen, as we would lie stagnant without some serious capital injection.
Whilst I had kept the shareholders informed of our situation, under the circumstances the chances of getting a reasonable number to reinvest were slim.
The first thing was to fall on my sword, put the cards on the table and take full responsibility for the mess in which we found ourselves.
To this end, I wrote a ten-page Chairman’s report (as the only director at this stage I was also Chairman of the company). It was a ‘warts and all’ story, with nothing held back.
Furthermore, I absolved everyone else from blame. The buck stopped with me.
My only two assets in the turmoil were a massive number of enquiries for Green Fern beer from countries all over the world and the undying fire in my belly.
These two became my main driving forces to keep moving forward. Not just because Green Fern was a great idea, it was where the future of the company was heading.
There was no doubt that what we had come through was indicative of the way the company had been run. It had been like a runaway train and whilst I worked on certain aspects, I sincerely believed I had appointed competent people to take care of the financial and administrative aspects. It turned out that although our current Finance Manager had far less experience on paper than her predecessors, she had an exact grasp of what was required.
On the other hand, we had received significant support from shareholders and creditors who acknowledged that we had been so far behind the eight ball and then turned it around and were getting back to zero debt and positive cash flow.
The AGM for the 2008/09 financial year was held on 13th July 2010 and my strategy was to leave it to the shareholders to decide whether they would focus on the positive (the way forward) or the woes of the past.
When delivering my address as chairman, I definitely fell on my sword, taking all blame and absolving all others of responsibility for what had happened. The shareholders supported me and we had a great meeting.
While the general sentiment at the meeting and from our shareholders was positive and supportive, Westcoast Brewing at times was the main topic of conversation in public bars and similar places in the South Island where ‘folk that know’ congregate to solve the problems of the world while not bothering to acknowledge their own. This was particularly evident on the West Coast. I received constant (inaccurate) feedback that we had already ‘gone broke’. It was disappointing that some of our West Coast shareholders joined in and carried the tittle-tattle further without giving us one ounce of support. This was not the case with all our West Coaster shareholders. There were those that would fight to their death defending our position. They are the stuff that legends are made of. For their support, I will forever be eternally grateful.
Some West Coasters that were both creditors and shareholders were the hardest to deal with and constantly put us down in the worst possible way to all who would listen. It is likely they would struggle to find anything good to say about anything or anybody, having the worst of a traditional small town mentality. I learned a valuable lesson about small town thinking as compared to the fast lane in which I had spent the last thirty years. The faster pace of the city tends to be where we find those who will take a risk on a Start-up, and much of our forward thrust in raising capital will focus in urban areas.
However, the rural communities have supported us well and we have a large number of significant investors from this sector; salt of the earth folk that are an absolute joy to catch up with and have a beer and a yarn.
With the AGM materials, we sent out a letter and an Expression of Interest form suggesting that shareholders might like to register their interest in investing.
The offer was magnificent. It had to be. My prime goal was to have an offer so good that down the track “EVERY OTHER SHARE HOLDER WHO DID NOT TAKE IT UP WOULD BE KICKING THEMSELVES FOR NOT DOING SO.”
I had no doubt, whatsoever in my mind that I would achieve the outcomes I had set out to do and the evidence was clearly there that many folk were backing me to do just that and would continue to do so right through to our exit.
fireinmybelly1 