Chip Tate has been kicked out of Balcones for his "damaging and reprehensible behavior". Tate has refused to give up control, has threatened to shoot the Chairman of the Board, and has implied he'd rather burn down the distillery than to give up control.
Over the past few weeks both Bear and I have given differing viewpoints of Chip Tate and Balcones. This is not surprising as Balcones' reviews are likewise quite mixed. But Balcones' Tate bothered me, especially once I viewed his self-centered and self-promoting, grandiose videos which were completely full of blather and blarney. I ended with this conclusion:
Tate was all about ego and I truly had my doubts that he was ready or capable of expanding so dramatically. I opined that he'd have been much better off just selling to his faithful niche market for his hard-to-get novelty releases. I knew he was cruising for a bruising, but I had no idea it would be quite so soon or - gulp - quite so dramatically...Moi:
"Compare to Balcone's whose novelty young crooked whiskies - successful within a narrow niche of new adopters - face incredible risks in scaling so fast to a broad market, who may just not dig fig/honey/sugar whiskies to the same extent. Not to mention the growing pains and problems of managing a much larger operation confounded by large investors who may not be as patient as he. "
Bear, were you aware of this? A real stunner. It gets worse...Waco Tribune (two days ago)
"A dispute among top managers at Waco’s Balcones Distilling threatens to disrupt the operations of the award-winning whisky maker and could jeopardize the funding of an ongoing expansion.
Disagreements between Charles “Chip” Tate, president and head distiller, and the young company’s board of managers have spilled from the boardroom to the courtroom, with board members obtaining a temporary restraining order to enforce its 90-day suspension of Tate, issued Aug. 8.
The board is seeking a temporary injunction against Tate, a minority interest holder in the company, alleging Tate “has engaged in acts harmful to Balcones.”
Tate was a gunowner and kept guns in his office. The filings state he threated to "put two (bullets" into the chest of the board chairman, ran up close to $15,000 with a company credit card (which he refuses to pay). Read the article for more..."Tate reportedly threatened the life of board chairman Greg Allen, suggested he would rather see the facility burn to the ground than be run by someone other than himself and continually has missed important meetings."
Flat Ass Bottom Line
It takes ego, focus, patience and a thick skin to start a business. As I mentioned earlier in this saga, I believed that success came way too easily, too early and too fast. Unfortunately this gentleman came to believe his own grandiose blather, and the "awards" he paid for. He mistook his novelty for quality, good fortune for competence and even fancied himself "the next Balvenie or Macallan". I'd hoped that he would choose to grow more slowly, to buy the time and experience he needed to better understand his real niche and his business, and to improve his skills. I'd pointed out that rapid expansion is often the death of the small businessman. Believe me, I've seen this happen more than once and it isn't pretty.
Had this young man done so - slowly and building carefully on his early success - to gain real legs, he had a bright future ahead. Now he has destroyed his reputation, and lost all practical respect and credibility. He's even lost his company, equipment and products. His chances of recovery are slim at best. As far the new company goes, the Balcones' brand is at risk, without Tate's former reputation and severely wounded by his new one.
I do feel bad for him, but as well said by James Brown "...it's the big payback..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IST6qRfVqwY
A failure snatched from the jaws of victory...
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http://www.wacotrib.com/news/business/m ... 0a001.html
