Labatt putting $460M into breweries

TORONTO — Labatt Breweries of Canada says it is investing $460 million between 2017 and 2020 to enhance its operations and help boost growth.

The maker of popular brands such as Labatt Blue, Budweiser and Alexander Keith’s says the figure includes $62.2 million toward brewery operations this year.

Each of Labatt’s six breweries has already received at least $19 million in recent years, as it invested $546 million in capital improvements between 2011 and 2016.

The company says this investment in new technology and equipment should help it increase production of new and innovative products, as consumer tastes develop and demand is rising for different kinds of beverages.

The investments are not expected to result in new jobs or layoffs.

Labatt employs more than 3,500 people in Canada and will celebrate its 170th year this fall. It operates breweries in London, Montreal, Halifax, St. John’s, Edmonton and Creston, B.C.

“We’ve been steadfast in our commitment to brewing great tasting high quality beer, so with these investments we are enhancing our operations to support further growth for the next 170 years,” said Charlie Angelakos, the company’s vice-president of legal and corporate affairs.

Labatt — once an independent giant in Canada’s beer industry — was bought in 1995 by a Belgian group that has continued to grow by buying and merging with other companies around the world.

The group, now called Anheuser-Busch InBev, last year bought the world’s second-biggest beer maker SABMiller for a combined one-third of the global beer market.