By November 1936, the brewery employed 75 workers and had a payroll exceeding $100,000 annually. Mitchell's beer dominated the beer market in El Paso and surrounding areas. Since El Paso had many beer drinkers, Grand Prize beer from Gulf Brewing Company in Houston started to enter Mitchell's market. Sooner than expected, Grand Prize started taking sales away from the Harry Mitchell's brewery and sales dropped off. Recognizing a downward trend, Harry Mitchell personally took a pay cut to offset the losses. The situation continued to worsen and the brewery barely survived during the next four years. In 1941, Mitchell's Lager and Bock beers sold for $2.10 a case.
Several attempts to improve the brewery's financial status took place in these lean years but without success. In mid-1941, the brewery introduced a new beer called Harry Mitchell's Select. The new product didn't succeed and was finally discarded in 1942. Other actions were taken, including the elimination of the sales representatives for both the New Mexico and Arizona areas.
Luckily, financial backing from Mrs. Keller kept the brewery above ground during the next four years. By the end of 1944, the brewery finally started to show a profit. It was at this time Mrs. Keller decided to sell her entire brewery stock. Harry jumped at the opportunity and bought the remaining shares. It took Harry Mitchell 11 years to finally own the company named after him.
In June 1945, a new era had just starred at the Harry Mitchell Brewing Company. It was at this time the direction of the business was now at the hands of Harry Mitchell himself. Mr. Charles Grider, one of the original four owners, also decided to retire and step down as Chairman. By this time there were many new faces at the brewery. Harry wanted to have total control of the brewery. The company invested $212,000 and bought back all the public stock at $26.50 per share.
One thing that Harry always wanted to do was get his family involved in the business. With this thought, Harry started to invite his wife, Lela, to all brewery board meetings. Lela, to everyones surprise, started participating in the ideas and decision making of the brewery operations. For the first time in the brewing industry history, a woman was elected to the position of Board Member. By 1947, Harry and Lela Mitchell started to make changes that affected the economical value of the brewery. A decision to construct a new bottling house and purchase additional property for the brewery was made without much opposition. The other big decision was to cancel all financial support from outside sources. Another move was hiring a new Vice President to replace W.W. Cunningham who decided to retire in 1946. With years of dedicated service to the Harry Mitchell Brewery, Mr. Cunningham was the last of the original owners to depart the company.
The person expected to fill the shoes of Mr. Cunningham was a young executive named Charles A. Kuper. Mr. Kuper, who prior to coming to the Harry Mitchell Brewing Company, was employed for three years as sales manager and public relations director for the Lone Star Brewery.
In April 1948, the board members decided to build the new bottling house. They also purchased two Ermold labeling machines from Meyer Supply Company, one Cemco 50 filler and crowner machine from Crown, Cork, and Seal Company, and a soaker and pasteurizer from the Barry-Wehmiller Machinery Company. The entire project cost Harry Mitchell brewery $400,000. Over 100 new employees were hired and the brewery was producing over 110,000 barrels a year.
More changes took place at the brewery 1949. A new canning line from Continental Can Company was being considered by the brewery. Mitchell's beer was finally packaged in cans by the end of the year. The new canning system produced 250 flat top cans of Mitchell Premium a minute, which was a little faster than the 220 bottles of beer that were filled in the same amount of time. The decision to add a canning line to the Harry Mitchell Brewing Company was a profitable move as sales picked up immediately.
With all the innovations that Harry started and were successful, he finally decided to sell his stock in the brewery and retire. On July 19, 1951 Harry Mitchell announced his retirement to the surprise of many employees. Mitchell sold his brewery in 1951 to Harold S. Stewart and Sons, the Bassett Towers, and the Russ Company of San Antonio, Texas for $1.5 million.
At the time of the sale, the Mitchell brewery was operating in great fashion. The new owners wanted to continue operating in the black and offered Harry Mitchell a job as advisory consultant for one year. Harry agreed to this position, only because he wanted to help the new owners get off on the right foot.
New Ownership
Right after Harry's retirement , a new President was needed. The person they selected was the former Vice President, Charles A Kuper. The first order of business was removing authorization from Harry Mitchell of signing the new company's financial accounts. The transfer of ownership of the Harry Mitchell Brewing Company went smoothly. To change the name of the business in April 1952, Mr. Kuper and his associates believed that since Harry Mitchell was no longer owner of the brewery, it should not be named after him. So in support of this theory, the name of the brewery was changed to just plain Mitchell Brewing Company. The officers believed that it was rime to get away from the shadow of Harry Mitchell. Small as the change seemed, it was a change that would give the officers the confidence to succeed without the help of Harry or that of his reputation.
Later that year, there were two major issues developed. The first was an employee share program. The Mitchell brewery offered its employees the chance to buy stock in the company. This program was carefully planned as it displayed a way to improve the company morale of its workers, even though the employees' morale was healthy. Another development was the brewer replaced Carl Weiss with John Bauer a brewmaster. Mr. Bauer announced that he was going to produce a lighter bodied beer without changing the quality.
In 1952, another change took place which involved the brand name Mitchell's Premium beer to simply Mitchell Premium beer. By the end of 1952, production increased 10 percent making it one of their best years.
By the summer of 1953, the Mitchell brewery started to get national recognition. It was during a contest among breweries that the Mitchell brewery took first place in the public relations category. They also tied for first place in the safety competition with other regional brewers. The efficiency of the Mitchell brewery was also recognized as they were able to fill 115,000 bottles and 144,000 cans in a period of eight hours. This figure does not compare to any brewery of today but back in 1953 this was breaking new records for small regional breweries.
By 1954. national competition started to knock on their doors.. The brewery considered buying a local professional baseball team to push Mitchell beer to greater heights throughout Texas but the board of directors decided not to. The brewery also decided to distribute its products into the San Antonio area. The reason for this inquiry was because a large number of stockholders resided in the San Antonio area. With careful planning and frequent discussion, the executives decided that it would be very beneficial for Mitchell Premium to be sold in the San Antonio market.
With this decision already agreed upon, Mr. Kuper announced that the person responsible for the distribution of Mitchell in the San Antonio market would be James Colton. This market was a very risky challenge for the Mitchell brewery, because San Antonio was the home of both Lone Star and Pearl breweries. Mr. Kuper believed by taking over both Lone Star and Pearl market share, Mitchell would become the largest brewery in Texas.
To accomplish more public relations, the brewery built a beer garden to utilize parties, gatherings and celebrations. The atmosphere of the beer garden was that of an old Bavarian type setting. It also accommodated as many as 125 guests.
With the introduction of Mitchell brands in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona market, immediately, the brewery enjoyed a 14 percent production increase. At the end of 1954, Mr. Kuper budgeted a $199,000 advertising campaign to further expand. the Mitchell market.
While Mitchell gained market share throughout Texas and New Mexico, Pearl, Lone Star and Arizona brewing companies retaliated by entering their brands in the El Paso market. immediately, Mitchell's El Paso market suffered a major loss by the end of 1954. According to Mr. Kuper, he blamed the market loss in El Paso due to the devaluation of the Mexican peso.
By May, 1955, there was a sharp decrease in the average of national beer consumption. Despite the national average, Mitchell continued to Increase its marker share in all areas, except in El Paso, as it increased its production by three percent. The Mitchell Brewing Company was selected by the Art Directors Exhibition for creating one of the top 10 best commercials produced in the United States. This was a tremendous honor fhr the Mitchell brewery, as the funds of the brewery were limited, compared to national breweries of that time. It was also announced by Mr. Kuper, that the Mitchell brewery was considering plans of a major volume shipping operation for the purpose of canning and bottling a new beer.
By the end of 1955, the Mitchell brewery introduced a new beer called "Golden Grain" and was sold only in California. Mr. Kuper forecasted that if the new brand was successful, this would have added more volume and profits to Mitchell. This would also cut down on the overall production costs. The executives considered his proposal and decided to make the change in the operation in order to remain in the black.
By the end of 1955, beer sales in San Antonio were starting to take a nose dive. The distributors were given a 60 day period to display some improvement. At the end of this period, the brewery started to see losses in profits. The executives also discovered the cost of packaging and shipping Golden Grain to California was too costly. Finally, a decision to contract the Le Vecke Company of Los Angeles to bottle and can the Golden Grain brand ended the exporting project. It was also considered to find other areas to sell their Golden Grain beer with the primary interest in the Northern and Eastern parts of the United States. This was the last major issue the officers of the Mitchell Brewing Company planned in 1955.
The Mitchell brewery started 1956 in a very cautious and guarded manner. For the first time in over ten years, the brewery was losing its market share. Golden Grain was not selling well in California and national breweries were gaining marker share in Mitchell's area.
It seemed the brewery had run into a time of uneasiness as Mitchell's market continued to decrease. This trend continued for several months until March 27, 1956, the Mitchell Board of Directors decided to sell all voting stock to whoever was interested in the brewery. At this point they had not limited themselves to one buyer but knew that they would sell only to a company that would agree on their terms. The brewery board of directors spent many endless hours examining all the bids sent in. When the smoke finally cleared, the Falstaff Brewing Company from St. Louis, Missouri would purchase the El Paso brewery.
The selling price of the Mitchell Brewing Company was estimated at $1.5 million. Falstaff announced that they would not be retaining the officers and executives of Mitchell Brewing Company. In order to take a little sting out of this announcement, Falstaff compensated by giving severance pay to each employee that was not going to be retained by their new owners. Mr. Kuper eventually moved back to San Antonio to become Vice President and General Manager of his former employer, the Lone Star brewery.
Falstaff discontinued all brands brewed by the Mitchell brewery and Mitchell beer faded into history. The El Paso brewery became Falstaff's #9 brewery and Falstaff brands continued to sell in the South-western States region for the next 20 years. Falstaff continued to operate the El Paso brewery until 1968 when the plant was finally shut down.
Harry Mitchell enjoyed retirement during his remaining years in El Paso before he passed away on May17, 1971 at the age of 82.
The brewery buildings still stand today. The old brewery's outdoor beer garden remains intact almost as it was years ago. The taste of Mitchell Lager remains in the memories of a small group of Texans who remember the days of Harry Mitchell. This was the end of a brewery in El Paso, that started in 1933 and in the 23 years of brewing excellence, provided the El Paso locals a very colorful history, and some very good beer.
About the Author , Richard Chevez lives in El Paso, Texas and has collected breweriana from the Harry Mitchell Brewing Company for several years. His book, The Bell Rings Again , has been a major reference for completing this story.