Six northern brewers unite to market their products

With about 300 craft breweries in Ontario now, six northern brewers are working together to promote their products to the key GTA market.

The Northern Ontario Brewers Alliance includes North Bay’s New Ontario Brewing Company and Almaguin’s Highlander Brew Company, along with brewers in Kenora, Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Timmins.

Dwayne Wanner with Highlander spoke with BayToday at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto recently.

“In the first instance, we each put one can in a six pack and sold that through the LCBO and that was a tremendous success, that was very popular,” he says.

The second pack is available, but he says it’s now difficult to do because of distribution regulations.

He says they’re now focused on shows and events to promote their products.

Wanner says policies put in place by former Premier Kathleen Wynne have helped the industry, including lower taxes, but that’s not all.

“She made the Beer Store open up so that they must carry craft beer in the front, which they didn’t do before and she made the LCBOs build the beer section in them, and she gave us the grocery stores, which changed distribution entirely,” he tells BayToday.

Another reason is the fact there’s no barrier to entry.

However, Wanner says that’s also diluting the market.

There are plans to add more brewers to the Northern Ontario Brewers Alliance.

For the full story, check out BayToday.ca

(Photo by Jeff Turl/BayToday.ca)