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The Beer Store is set to allow craft breweries to get their products on Ontario beer store shelves while also opening up the door to part ownership. It sounds good for craft beer drinkers, but brewers are skeptical.
The Beer Store announced changes Wednesday that would give craft breweries more of a presence on the shelves and in the boardroom. Firstly, the initial entrance fee of $3,000 has been dropped.
Andrea Martin is V.P. Of Retail for The Beer Store: “Give us a call today and the first two listings are free for the five stores immediately around their area.”
Next, stocking shelves in additional stores will cost a reduced $230. And the beer store, which is run by several international beer-behemoths, is also allowing craft breweries to buy into the company at a very low price.
Martin: “So a brewer who’s sales are less than a million liters through the beer store is $100.”
This is good news for craft beer enthusiasts who would rather skip the conventional Canadian and Coors and opt for something a bit more exotic with a spicier name, like Flying Monkey, out of Barrie.
But for craft brewers, the news blindsided them.
John Romano: “The announcement came today as a shock for all of us in the craft industry.”
John Romano, co-founder of Better Bitters Brewing in Burlington says the changes are a step in the right direction but doesn’t help Ontario’s smaller breweries: “You look at a brewery way up north and they pick five beer stores way up in Northern Ontario. But where’s the action? It’s down here.”
And for established breweries like his, Romano says the changes miss the mark on achieving success on a larger scale: “Could we have channels where craft beers are available at your local grocery store or convenience store? That would be amazing. It gives us another channel to distribute our beer.”
And many questions still remain in terms of the new ownership policies.
Romano: “If I bought a thousand shares and I dump x-number of dollars into it, how much of The Beer Store am I going to own? It’s probably a very small amount.”
But there is no question that craft brewers believe that this is a public relations move by The Beer Store amid heavy criticism after a partnership was revealed between them and the LCBO. But according to Andrea Martin with The Beer Store, that’s not the case: “It’s really about us understanding and reacting what we heard and learned as feedback from our brewers and customers to make sure we’re even making our system better.”
