Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu Glauner GmbH & Co. KG

Three Questions for Katrin S. Glauner

What was your starting point?

During the implementation and familiarization period, which lasted only three weeks, confidence in the new corporate performance management tool grew rapidly."A further advantage is that there are no interface problems," Katrin Glauner explains the reasoning behind the decision three years ago to replace Excel. At the family-run brewery in Alpirsbach, data are transferred smoothly to Corporate Planner from the source system, an AS400-based program peculiar to the industry. 

What are your highlights?

Since Corporate Planner is so flexible, plans can be adjusted and acted on without delay. The time saved literally pays for itself. Alongside the benefits for routine corporate performance management activities already mentioned, another important effect has been noted: the professional reports, which can be individually designed, are often highly praised by banks and other business partners. This, in turn, puts the company in a favourable light when it comes to investment projects. The Managing Director adds that the clear presentation of the company figures in the Corporate Planner tree structure has proved especially useful for cleaning up redundant data. 

What lessons have you learned?

The financial controllers use Corporate Planner to display the contribution margin analysis as well as the personnel costs and the sales staff expense accounts. Thanks to the versatile analysis and simulation functions, the entire budgeting process is now considerably more straightforward and can be carried out with greater precision. Katrin S. Glauner, Managing Director of Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu, works with the CP software every day and enters the relevant data. The corporate performance management system is now used extensively throughout the company for conducting analyses, in particular by the HR department and by the field and in-house sales staff. By participating in the wide-ranging CP training program, Katrin Glauner has become an expert in Corporate Planner.

About Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu

For over a hundred years, the Glauner family has been running the brewery with passion. The former Benedictine monastery of Alpirsbach, founded in 1095, is located in the midst of the northern Black Forest. Carl Glauner bought the brewery in 1877 and brought it back into business three years later. He advanced the modernisation of the brewing operation and introduced steam power in 1893. His son, Carl Hermann Glauner, took over the company in 1930. As a brewer, trained in Weihenstephan, he laid the foundation for their own water supply to the brewery by buying up the surrounding water sources and forest. He wanted to be sure of having absolutely pure water flowing directly from source to brew house. In what is now the fourth generation under Carl Wilfried Glauner, the Alpirsbach World of Brewing has been set up, which is a visitor centre concerning all aspects relating to beer with a brewery museum, glass blowing and the gallery for contemporary art established by his father, as well as the Alpirsbach nature project. Today, Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu has nearly 80 employees who produce beer for every taste: from pils through a range of wheat beers to specialities and seasonal varieties such as bock beer and Christmas beer.