Minhas Siblings Unable to Make Hamilton New Home for Brewery

CALGARY, Dec. 2 /CNW/ - Ravinder and his sister Manjit Minhas formally announced today that they are unable to make a new brewery in Hamilton a reality.

"I am saddened to have to tell my friends in Hamilton and Ontario that it is not economically viable to start from scratch on a new brewery at this time," stated Minhas. "I was pleased to get to know the former employees of Lakeport Brewery and their families, the local city officials and individual Hamiltonians."

Minhas Siblings, marketers of Boxer Beer, commissioned a feasibility study after being rejected by Labatt (owned by the multi-national mega brewing company Anheuser Bush Imbev from Belgium) to purchase their recently closed Hamilton facility.  It should be noted that Labatt had bought the Hamilton the brewery from Lakeport Brewery, an independent Brewing Company in 2007 for just over $201 Million. Labatt subsequently closed the facility in March of 2010.

"There has been a disturbing trend of the breweries buying up smaller operators and then shutting them down. In Hamilton's case, 143 employees were let go, causing unimaginable pain for the employees, their families and numerous suppliers in the area" stated Minhas.

After being rejected by Labatt,  the Minhas Siblings decided to look at the possibilities of building a brewery from scratch in Hamilton. This took longer than expected as the first feasibility report was for a turnkey operation that was very expensive.  It was then researched and sized with used equipment on the market as well as equipment from Asia.  This improved the feasibility of building a brewery in Hamilton; however, it was still not a viable project especially with the hurdles we were facing for succeeding in Ontario. 

In Ontario, more than 85% of the beer is sold through 'The Beer Store' which is owned in excess of 95% by the duo of SAB (South African Breweries/Miller/Coors/Molson) and ABI (Anheuser Busch/ImBev/Labatt), who we feel have made it an uneven marketplace for those other than themselves to succeed. This is the primary reason why the Minhas Siblings decided not to proceed with building a new brewery in Hamilton.

This systematic approach used by "The Beer Store" that goes against the industry practice anywhere in the country and even common sense, makes it very difficult for anybody to succeed other than SAB and ABI. There are many examples that can be provided that proves how the Ontario beer market is made uneven and offers a great advantage to  the 2 International Brewers  - SAB (aka Molson) and ABI (aka Labatt). 

"Hamilton, and the people who call it home are truly wonderful Canadians.  I am impressed with their spirit and resilience.  They typify the Canadian can-do attitude," said Minhas.  "I hope we have the opportunity to work together in the future.

Boxer Lager and Boxer Ice continue to do well in LCBO stores and in The Beer Store in Ontario.  Despite all the unfair hurdles we face, we are hoping to offer Ontario beer consumer more of our product lines in the near future.

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