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Cheers for the suds studs
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December 16, 1996: 5:30 p.m. ET
Co-founders of mail order beer biz will gross $30 million after only five years
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) -- For those who like getting a different type of exotic fruit every month, or a different cut of steak, mail order clubs have long been an option.
Join one, and every thirty days a fresh package of high-quality food comes straight to the door, no trip to the market necessary.
But pity the poor beer drinker. What's a soul to do when he's tired of swilling Bud Lite for the umpteenth time and there's nothing else on the shelves of his local store?
Enter Beer Across America.
The five-year-old company started by lifelong friends Louis Amoroso -- formerly of Andersen Consulting -- and Todd Holmes, who left the world of commercial real estate, has developed a strong business selling microbrews by mail.
Their company, based in Lake Bluff, Ill., will deliver two different six packs of microbrews to mail order customers every month, for two months, up to a year. Beer deliveries start at $16.95.
Beer Across America is billing $30 million this year, and has been so successful that they've expanded the concept into monthly deliveries of fine wines and the newest trendy status symbol, cigars
"We like to call them affordable luxuries," said Amoroso, speaking on CNNfn's "Before Hours" Monday morning.
But it all started with beer. "We got into it a great time," Amoroso adding, "In 1991 the whole microbrewing industry was really starting to hit its stride."
The microbreweries loved it too. With limited advertising budgets and only local distribution, being connected with Beer Across America was an ideal way for them to achieve wider sales, a fact already known to the makers of some fine wines, said Ameroso. (124 K WAV) or (124K AIFF).
The two invested $20,000 to get their business off the ground. "We decided we'd give it a shot with beer and see how things worked out after the first year," said Holmes. "We figured if we had 1,000 members we'd keep on going."
After a year Beer Across America had 10,000 members, and now it has 120,000.
It's all part of the general move in American consumer tastes from mass to class, they say. Amoroso and Holmes aren't sure what shape their business will take ten years from now, but what ever it is, Holmes is sure about one thing.
"We expect to have fun," he said. 
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Beer Across America
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