Buck & Bass Limited, an "outside-in" joint venture between Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse and Bass Pro Shops promises to put another smudge on the already blurred line between entertainment and retail, and a new twist on the in-store eatery concept.
| Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse, Inc.(517-732-5781) will open a Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse in Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, in partnership with Bass Pro Shops (417) 873-5000), a major retailer of outdoor sports equipment. The new microbrewery/restaurant will be owned by Buck & Bass Limited, a joint venture of Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse, Inc. and Bass Pro Shops, and is expected to open late in the first quarter of 1999. Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse will occupy 22,500 square feet and will include dining and bar areas seating 500, plus a microbrewery with a capacity of 15,000 barrels per year. It will be connected through a central lobby to both the 190,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World superstore and a new 330-room Embassy Suites Outdoor World hotel and convention center. |
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Casting a Net for Customers
The Big Buck restaurant, Bass Pro store and hotel complex are designed to lure outdoor enthusiasts indoors. It will be located on Highway 121, the major artery between downtown Dallas and the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport, one mile from the airport's 60 million annual passengers. The 38-acre site is near Grapevine Mills, a 1.5 million square-foot value retail and entertainment-oriented megamall. An Opryland hotel and convention center, with 1,500 rooms and 350,00 square feet of convention and exhibit space, is scheduled to open in Grapevine in 2003. The $300 million Opryland complex will cover 77 acres and include many recreation and entertainment facilities. Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse borrowed $1.4 million from Crestmark Bank, Troy, Michigan in November. The funds will be utilized primarily in the construction of the Grapevine project, company officials said.
"This is a natural partnership between our north woods restaurant theme and Bass Pro's retail concept," said William Rolinski, president of Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse, Inc. "Visiting an Outdoor World store is more than just shopping; it is an entertaining experience, and we want the guests to continue the fun by coming over to Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse. Bass Pro expects 4.5 to 6.0 million visitors per year at this site, and we hope to attract a significant number of first-time guests from among these shoppers. Our experience at our other microbrewery / restaurants demonstrates that many of these will become repeat guests."
"We ... are exploring the possibility of expanding this partnership to develop similar joint sites in Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Nashville and Charlotte. The partnership gives us the opportunity to expand much more rapidly than we would otherwise envision. By including Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse in Bass Pro's advertising, catalogs and videotapes, we will be able to take advantage of Bass Pro's national marketing to gain broad exposure for the Big Buck name as we expand our concept beyond Michigan. Bass Pro distributes over 30 million catalogs every year to customers whose profile is very close to Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse's customer profile."
Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops, stated, "We are very excited about this new partnership because our customers are going to be very excited about the entire Big Buck experience. We have visited other Big Buck locations and were extremely impressed. In addition to providing great food, Big Buck offers a very exciting atmosphere that we believe our customers will really enjoy."
Big Buck Background
Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse, Inc., (BBUC-NASDAQ) based in Gaylord, Mich., develops, owns and operates microbrewery/restaurants. Currently, the company operates Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouses in Gaylord, Mich., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Auburn Hills, Mich. Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse offers casual dining featuring a moderately priced menu and a selection of beers ranging from light golden ale to dark full-bodied stout, and sells its microbrewed beer off-site through wholesale distributors.
Bass Pro Shops is a privately held corporation specializing in catalog retail sales and outdoor-themed destination retail outlets. For more than 25 years, Bass Pro Shops has been a major retailer and manufacturer of fishing tackle, hunting equipment, and camping and other outdoor gear. Bass Pro Shops currently operates stores in Springfield, Missouri; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Islamorada, Florida; and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Plans have also been announced for Outdoor World stores in Houston, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Orlando, Florida; and Detroit, Michigan. Sister company Tracker Marine is a major manufacturer of aluminum and fiberglass fishing and recreational boats.
While Big Buck Brewery’s gross revenues are increasing at exponential rates, its losses also are mounting. The company announced revenue of $3,964,935 for the first quarter ended March 28, 1998, an increase of 255 percent from $1,116,751 reported in the first quarter of 1997. The company reported a net loss of $489,053, or 9 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $355,186, or 7 cents per share, in the same period of the prior year. The company said net income was impacted by an extraordinary charge relating to a change in generally accepted accounting principles. In the past, restaurants have been allowed to write off the pre-opening expenses associated with a new unit over the first year of operation for that unit. Effective January 1, 1998, these pre-opening costs must be written off as they are incurred. Because Big Buck's Auburn Hills unit has been open for less than one year, the company still had some pre-opening costs that had not been expensed. The remaining costs were written off in the first quarter, which resulted in a one-time charge of $346,547. Without this one-time charge, the company would have reported a net loss of $142,506 or 3 cents per share.
Big Buck announced revenue of $3,611,759 for the second quarter ended June 28, 1998, an increase of 103 percent from $1,775,601, reported in the second quarter of 1997. The company reported a net loss of $369,331, or 7 cents per share, in the second quarter of 1998, compared to a net loss of $257,963, or 5 cents per share, in the same period of the prior year. For the first half of 1998, total revenue reached $7,576,698, an increase of 162 percent from 1997 first half revenue of $2,892,353. The company reported a net loss of $858,380, or 16 cents per share, in the first half of 1998, versus a net loss of $613,148, or 12 cents per share, for the same period of the prior year.
The company announced revenue of $4,089,193 for the third quarter ended September 27, 1998, an increase of 89 percent from $2,162,599, reported in the third quarter of 1997. The company reported a net loss of $145,417, or 3 cents per share, in the third quarter of 1998, compared to a
net loss of $195,982, or 4 cents per share, in the same period of the prior year. For the first nine months of 1998, total revenue reached $11,665,888, an increase of 131 percent from revenue of $5,054,950 in the same period of 1997. The company reported a net loss of $1,003,794, or 19 cents per share, in the first nine months of 1998, after a charge for the cumulative effect of a change in accounting for start-up costs of $346,547, or 7 cents per share. For the same period of the prior year, the company reported a net loss of $809,072, or 15 cents per share.
All that said, there’s nothing like a story to set the tone for a theme restaurant, and beyond that, there’s no tale like a tall tale. Big Buck Brewery has both. Here’s the Big Buck story, straight from the company web site:
The Saga of the Big Buck and Brave Bill
This tale begins way back in the winter of '89, when Bill Rolinski, the founder of Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse, took his annual deer hunting trip deep inside the Black River Swamp. You must first understand that, although not a bad hunter, Brave Bill, as he was sometimes known, was a guy with what could be politely termed "a really bad sense of direction."
Anyway, that day started off bright and sunny perfect napping weather for the avid deer hunter. Sure enough, Bill was fast asleep by 9:30 a.m., leaning against an old tree stump. Many a deer was frightened off by Bill's snoring, but that's another story. Around about noon, a blizzard kicked up and shortly thereafter Bill woke up with a mouth full of snow. It was white, thank God. He realized that it was definitely time to "get outta Dodge" (did we mention he had a really bad sense of direction?) and so he gathered his things and started walking east - when he should have gone west!
Bill wandered around, trudging through the snow; dehydrated, starving, cold and worn-out... for what seemed like four or five minutes. Suddenly, he heard a twig snap. Brave Bill threw his gun to the ground and darted to the nearest tree to scramble up - but he couldn't get a foothold! Slowly, Bill turned, blood frozen in his veins... and saw the biggest buck he had ever seen in his life (also his first)! Bill stared in amazement at this strong, proud, and beautiful animal. The buck lifted his pointed head, stared straight at Bill's pointed head and something quite indescribable passed between them.
Then, the buck turned and began slowly walking away as, mesmerized, Bill followed. First, the buck led him to a sparkling spot in the snow which turned out to be an ice cold can of beer. Brave Bill picked it up, politely inquired as to ownership and, receiving no response, popped the top and quenched his thirst. After marking their territory, man and beast pressed on.
Shortly thereafter, Brave Bill noticed a snowcovered vehicle on the side of what looked like a road. Imagine his surprise when it turned out to be his own truck! Bill turned to thank the buck, which bowed its great head and bounded off into the snow, never to be seen again.
In gratitude, Bill vowed that one day he would honor the big buck that saved his life by building a beautiful lodge to feed and quench the thirst of other great hunters like himself. He would call it The Big Buck Brewery and Steakhouse. And as you can see, Bill kept his word, despite the fact that some of his friends thought it should have been called.... A Little Bull.