The Beer Store is opening its ownership structure from private to public to include small Ontario craft breweries.
Effective immediately, new policies have been put in place that make it cheaper and easier for the craft breweries to sell their product at the Beer Store – a change not warmly welcomed by Ottawa-area microbrewers, including Centretown-based Beyond The Pale.
An early January statement from Beer Store president Ted Moroz announcing the changes came as a surprise to many craft brewers and the public.
“Ontario brewers will be able to participate in the management of the company,” Moroz said in the statement. “The smallest Ontario brewers will get improved opportunities to grow their sales volumes at a significantly reduced cost.”
The reforms give Ontario craft brewers the option of buying in to get a share of the beer retailer and more shelf space in stores.
The Beer Store on Somerset Street across from Dundonald Park is being rebuilt as part of a property redevelopment at that site.
The buy-in fee is $100, which includes a share in the company and the option for Ontario brewers to sell two of their products to the five closest Beer Store locations to their brewery.
For brewers that have seasonal beers, they will be able to swap an existing product with the seasonal beer twice per year for no additional fee.
Anything more than that will come at an additional fee.
But craft brewers in Centretown are skeptical about the planned changed to the Beer Store.
Mario Magman, general manager of The 3 Brewers, a microbrewery and restaurant on Sparks Street, says he won’t be making the move either.
“Every microbrew we make is unique to each of our locations,” Magman says. “Our copper ale is something you can’t get anywhere else. We only sell it in-house.”
Rob McIsaac, co-owner of Beyond The Pale, says the deal isn’t appealing to craft brewers.
“We’re not interested in a $100, one share that has no real value in the Beer Store,” McIsaac says. “Our bigger issue is with the legislation in Ontario. What we want to see is a more level playing field for breweries in the province.”