using the cost estimates that Chris has given to introduce Mountain Man Light, calculate the number of additional barrels of beer that the company would have to sell to breakeven on these additional costs.

Chris also wondered if MMBC could afford to launch Mountain Man Light. Although the launch of Mountain Man Light would not require capital expenditures in plant and equipment in the short term due to existing excess capacity in Mountain Man's facility, launching a new product was an expensive endeavor for a lean company not used to making these kinds of investments. While this was not the launch of a new national beer brand, which Chris knew cost between $10 million and $20 million in TV advertising alone, it wasn't cheap to launch a new product on a regional basis either. The advertising agency estimated that creating a brand awareness level of 60% for Mountain Man Light in the East Central region would cost at least $750,000 in an intensive six-month advertising campaign. This would be on top of the $900,000 in annual, incremental SG&A costs that Chris projected the new product would require, based on the need for a Mountain Man Light product manager, an addition to the sales staff, and ongoing marketing expenditures. Although MMBC's variable cost per barrel of its lager beer was $66.93, it would cost $4.69 more per barrel to produce Mountain Man Light. Because Mountain Man would receive the same price per barrel for both products, the contribution margin for Mountain Man Light would be lower than the contribution margin of Mountain Man Lager. Chris knew that, given Mountain Man's CFO's conservative stance regarding investment, he would have to convince the senior management team that the Mountain Man Light product would generate a profit within two years, selling enough barrels to cover both the associated launch marketing and incremental SG&A expenses and make up for the negative impact on overall profitability resulting from potential lost Mountain Man Lager sales. His estimates regarding barrel sales would need to make sense in terms of market share in the very competitive light beer segment. Chris recalled the risks expressed by John Fader, the vice president of sales