PINE GROVE — Regulations the U.S. government places on businesses and competition from other companies are among the biggest struggles facing “America’s Oldest Brewery,” Richard “Dick” Yuengling Jr. said Friday.
Despite that, industries are searching for workers. “There’s opportunities out there and everyone’s looking for good employees,” Yuengling, president and owner of D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc., Pottsville, said in his keynote address during Pine Grove Area High School’s Career Day.
Yuengling’s appearance highlighted a day organized by the school’s guidance department which brought 50 presenters from various employment backgrounds to the school to speak directly with students.
A video explaining the day-to-day operation of Yuengling as a fifth-generation brewery was shown before high school Principal Michael Janicelli introduced the company president.
Yuengling answered questions about his own career path and business challenges. He said he attended Lycoming College for a year, playing baseball, and had also served in the Army reserve, eventually returning to work in the family business.
He said he never wanted to do anything other than work in the brewery business. What’s brought him great satisfaction is employing nearly 225 people, and seeing those employees’ children growing up and also succeeding.
“Providing good jobs is very gratifying,” he said.
However, there were some struggles. In 1963 or 1964, he said his father had considered selling the brewery. Yuengling convinced his father to hold onto it. The two also disagreed on how to move forward in 1973.
“I wanted to modernize in 1973, and I had a fight with my dad about modernizing it,” he said. “So, I left, and then thought ‘What am I going to do?’ ”
Yuengling said he had worked as a truck driver for Fanelli Brothers and had worked delivering coal to apartments in Philadelphia, but realized he didn’t want to pursue those options. Instead, he bought a beer distributor business and did very well, he said, before returning to the family brewery.
One of his smartest business decisions, he said, was when Yuengling bought the brewery in Tampa, Florida. It enabled him to grow the company without running out of product, until the Mill Creek brewery could be built.
He said Yuengling is a small, family-run operation, trying to compete on pricing with Budweiser, Miller and Coors.
“I had to run a really efficient brewery to expand our business,” he said. He also attributes his success to hiring the right people.
Pine Grove senior Samantha LePre caught up with Yuengling in the auditorium after his address. She said her mother, Lisa LePre, used to work as a tour guide at the brewery.
“I thought when he (Yuengling) came in and told us to do something with our life, that was good advice,” LePre, who plans to major in psychology at Penn State Schuylkill, said.
“I didn’t see one kid talking during that assembly,” John Gradwell, guidance counselor, said. “They were hanging on every word he was saying. There was no one who sat in that auditorium who couldn’t relate to him,” he said.
Gradwell said Yuengling touched upon many opportunities, included those provided in the military, trade and technical schools, and college.
“He’s such a low-profile guy. He’s down-to-earth. He’s one of us. This was an opportunity for students to see people from Schuylkill County can be anything that they want to be,” Gradwell said.
Gradwell, fellow guidance counselor Shauna Havrilla and English teacher Andrea Hatter coordinated the day’s activities.