Steve Brogan’s career has been wonderfully varied. The founder and CEO of Interbev UK formerly played county cricket for the English team Nottinghamshire and has also dabbled in professional high-level poker. He has worked for two UK-based brewing companies—firstly Bass and then Scottish & Newcastle—and has also had experience in the world of wine and spirits. Furthermore, he has held a number of senior roles in drinks sales, marketing, procurement and logistics.
In 2008, after working as a trading director for the now-defunct Waverley TBS for four years, Steve was made redundant, yet soon learned it was a blessing in disguise, as it it gave him the motivation to take his future into his own hands. He was propelled into becoming a start-up entrepreneur and launched a drinks distribution business from a laptop in his bedroom.
“I think the experience of having worked in a corporate environment, and also in a wholesale distribution company, gave me a set of skills that I could convert into my own company,” Steve recalls. “This is what really led to the beginning of Interbev UK. I also think there’s an apt analogy in terms of my experience in professional sport which crosses over into the business environment around building teams, and working together with absolute determination to win. That has certainly had an impact on the way that I’ve built the company.”
“I started with my redundancy money, as well as some borrowed from my dad, and invested that into buying and selling stock. That was at the back end of 2008 when there was obviously a stock market crash and economic conditions were pretty poor. I managed to get a couple of suppliers that I knew from my corporate days to support me, using the payment method of cash with order, and also selling as cash with order. I just kept doing more transactions and grew the business that way.”
