particular story or no nothing special about it, i think it would be next or near impossible, but since we had a unique situation, we were the only ones in the united states that were making flatware, we had a special story to tell. a story to tell consumers and a story to tell themselves. while bankruptcy was nothing they would have wished for, both matt and greg feel they ve come out stronger on the other side. we would rather be strong and profitable than big and clumsy. you don t learn things through successes, you learn when you fail, and we failed a lot over the past seven, eight, nine years, but you dust yourself off and you just keep going. it is fall and that means it s time to put away the rose and break out the cider. over the last few years cider sales have been booming. we met the owners of two small companies who are competing with big brands and they ve decided
that their size is actually an asset. these look great. you ve got john s, macs, sort of the goldens. greg hall of benville, michigan, is very picky about which apples go into his hard seider. this morning he and peter clyne, the owner of nearby seedling orchard of testing. you can see how they cluster. and tasting. as a seider maker, we re looking for aroma and flavor, acid and tannin from the apple. as an independent brewer greg is part of a small but rapidly growing beverage category, hard site ter, where his virtue cider label has been thriving. three years ago nobody knew where it was. now it s all over tv, all over the supermarkets. no surprise, all this rapid growth has not gone unnoticed by big players in the beer category. greg s now getting stiff competition from big beer brands
these look great. johns, macs, we have the goldens. greg hall of fenville, michigan, is very picky about which apples go into his cider. this morning, he and peter, owner of nearby seedling orchard, are testing. you can see how they cluster, which is an unusual feature. and tasting. as a cider maker, we re looking for aroma and flavor, acid and tannin from the apple. as an independent brewer, greg is part of a small but rapidly growing beverage category, hard cider, where his label has been thriving. now it s all over the tv, all over the supermarkets. no surprise, all of this rapid growth has not gone unnoticed by big players in the beer category. greg is now getting stiff competition from big beer brands who have recently acquired cider