Craft beer fans froth as Mill St. goes mega-corporate.
• Labatt Breweries of Canada has purchased Toronto’s Mill Street Brewery, much to the chagrin of fans who prefer their craft brews to be local and independently owned.
Labatt, itself a former independent Canadian brewery that is now owned by the global industry giant Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, announced the acquisition of Mill Street Friday. Labatt did not disclose the purchase price, but said it plans to “immediately invest” $10 million in its Toronto operations.
While some congratulated Mill Street on the move, many distressed fans took to Twitter to express their displeasure.
“Congrats to the owner of @MillStreetBrew you deserve to cash in ... but I’ll never be able to drink you again because Labatt’s will (expletive) it up,” tweeted the user @FootballSaves. “Really?! Really?! Why would you sell out?!” said a distraught @Diego153.
In a release, Mill Street chief executive Irvine Weitzman said teaming up with Labatt will boost the brewery’s distribution power. The demand for craft beer has been growing at a time beer consumption overall has been shrinking, but Ontario’s complicated distribution regulations make it difficult for small breweries to get their products to consumers.
“Our partnership with Labatt is a natural evolution in our growth that will allow more Canadians to enjoy our beer and secure the legacy of our brands by allowing us to remain focused on the authentic characteristics that have made Mill Street what it is today,” Weitzman said in the release, which confirmed that Weitzman, co-founder Steve Abrams and brewmaster Joel Manning will continue to work at Mill Street.
Competitor Beau’s Brewery took advantage of the oppor- tunity to issue a news release boasting that it is “Canada’s largest craft producer of organic beer,” now that Mill Street is “owned by a compu-global-hyper-mega-net brewery.” The Ottawa-area brewer even invited Mill Street employees to jump ship and apply for jobs.
Nicholas Pashley, author of Cheers: An Intemperate His- tory of Beer in Canada, said serious beer connoisseurs aren’t surprised by the news. For all the gnashing of teeth, the average beer drinker probably won’t notice a difference, he said.
“They’ve hit the jackpot, and I can’t begrudge them,” Pashley wrote in an email. “It’s part of a trend in the business — the huge guys swallowing up the medium-sized guys as the beer giants see their brands losing ground.”
In contrast to the beer fans bemoaning the loss of small breweries swallowed up by global mega-corporations, Ontario Craft Brewers president John Hay said such acquisitions are actually good for the craft brewing industry. In a release, he pointed to Molson Canada’s 2005 purchase of Creemore Springs Brewery, which touched off a growth spurt in small breweries in the province.
“People recognized the excitement and potential of craft brewing. The industry grew from about 30 operating brewers to approximately 150 within five or six years,” Hay said.
Reached by phone, Mill Street co-founder Abrams said he’s taking the passionate response as a compliment. “I think there’s a lot of love out there for Mill Street,” he said. “What else elicits that kind of a response? We’re talking about beer here.”
You deserve to cash in... but I’ll never be able to drink you again