200 | Business World Magazine |
Aug/Sep 2013
ed as the Charles Bierbauer Brewery. It was
here that Francis Xavier Matt I, a German
immigrant, emerged as a lead salesman and
brew-master, but in the years previous, F.X.
had worked at the Duke of Baden Brewery
in the Black Forest area of Germany. Matt’s
acumen was so esteemed that he eventually
assumed leadership of Bierbauer, reorganiz-
ing it into the West End Brewing Company
in 1888. With a composite of 12 employees,
West End Brewing initially produced some
4,000 barrels of beer in its first year. The
company continued to grow along with pop-
ularity of its brand, and went on to employ
as many as 400 people before Prohibition
put a kink in the works. The company kept
alive by producing a new line of soft drink
which bore the label of Utica Club. With
the repeal of Prohibition, the Utica Club la-
bel was transferred to what became the com-
pany’s flagship beer. The company still pro-
duces a popular line of sodas which include
root beer, ginger beer and orange cream, but
these products account for only a small frac-
tion of Matt Brewing Co’s annual revenues.
The beer continues to represent the compa-
ny’s greatest claim to fame and the founda-
tion for the company’s continued success.
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