Ontario Beer Distribution Channels

Posted by Daniel Workman Jul 6, 2008

Several years back, Brick Brewery Company had a chance to own a part of the Beer Store, one of the premier retail channels for selling suds to Ontario drinkers. Brick declined, partially because no dividend payment was part of the deal.

Now a small brewer like Brick is having great difficulty getting their products on the shelves of one of Canada's largest chain of beer stores.

Instead, the 3 large multinationals that own the Beer Store dominate the ad space and shelf space. Those huge companies are:

• Labatt's owned by InBev, the world's largest beer company by volume
• Molson Coors
• Sappolo out of Japan.

Those huge multinationals have multimillion dollar advertising budgets. As a result,, consumers are much more familiar with Labatt's, Molson and even Sappolo brands. Going into the Beer Store, guess which case of beer drinkers will ask for?

Looking around and only seeing poster-sized ads for the huge beer brands and only those beers on the shelf, a small independent brewer like Brick has no chance.

In international trade, distribution channels are sometimes more important than the product itself.