Waterloo Brewing entangled in $4-million dispute with company behind Nude drinks
Waterloo Brewing Ltd. and a Vancouver beverage company are embroiled in a multimillion-dollar dispute.
The local brewer alleges MXM Beverages Ltd., which distributes and sells alcoholic drinks across Canada under the brand name Nude, breached an agreement and owes $4 million.
On Jan. 1, 2020, Waterloo Brewing agreed to produce and package a line of alcoholic beverages for MXM. The Vancouver company planned to buy at least 75,000 hectolitres of product each year for three years, according to a court ruling released last week.
Waterloo Brewing, owned by the Carlsberg beer empire, says MXM agreed to pay any difference between the minimum order and the actual amount it bought.
MXM, according to Waterloo Brewing, ordered only nine per cent of the minimum.
MXM refuses to pay the $4 million.
It says that in March 2020, Waterloo Brewing told its customers it may have to reduce order volumes “due to anticipated labour and material shortages associated with the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the Superior Court ruling.
MXM also says that three months later, Waterloo Brewing said it could not accommodate an order until August 2020. The company argues Waterloo Brewing said it could not produce product within the time frames set out in the agreement. In November and December 2020, MXM cut its 2021 production forecasts. Its last order was in August 2021.
Waterloo Brewing, on Bingemans Centre Drive in Kitchener, alleges MXM breached the agreement because “it wanted to pay less by placing orders with another brewery.”
Waterloo Brewing asked the court to declare that MXM must pay $4 million.
Instead, Justice Julia Shin Doi ruled that the dispute will proceed to a trial.
Waterloo Brewing started in 1984 with a beer called Waterloo Dark. The company was called Brick Brewing. Denmark-based Carlsberg bought Waterloo Brewing last year for $144 million.
Waterloo Brewing, on Bingemans Centre Drive in Kitchener, alleges MXM breached the agreement because ‘it wanted to pay less by placing orders with another brewery’