ONE-ON-ONE WITH DICK YUENGLING Billionaire brewer plans to keep company lean, nimble and growing in existing markets

Work hard and surround yourself with good people.

Work hard and surround yourself with good people.

Be determined and don’t always listen to what people tell you (including your own father).

And, of course, throw in a pitcher of luck.

That’s the formula for the wildly successful career of Dick Yuengling, owner of D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. in Pottsville, one of the nation’s top-selling beer makers.

Yuengling, though, left the company in 1973 because he couldn’t get his father to modernize operations. He returned in 1984 as the company was beginning to rebound and took over the next year.

Since then, he has led the brewer to remarkable growth based on the principles of remaining efficient, growing steadily within existing markets and staying nimble to satisfy distributors and consumers.

Today, Yuengling’s lucrative business is in its sixth generation, and he shows no signs of slowing down. With two production facilities in Pottsville and another in Tampa, Fla., Yuengling & Son has not had a down year in two decades.

The father of four daughters, Yuengling’s net worth is $1.3 billion, according to Forbes, and his company remains privately-owned and operated.

Recently, Lehigh Valley Business interviewed Yuengling in the conference room of his Mill Creek Road plant in Pottsville, where the constant sound of thousands of clanging beer bottles could be heard as they rode along the conveyer belt below. It’s a noise that brings comfort and a sense of calm to the 70-year-old leader of America’s oldest brewery.

Lehigh Valley Business: Let’s hear a little bit about your background and how you got started with America’s oldest brewery [which began in 1829]. There’s a long history with Yuengling, and several generations.