Ontario Craft Brewers Assoc.

[swall]

I've been hearing ad's on the radio about the Ontario Craft Brewers Association. I understand they received a grant from the Government to promote themselves (5 million over 5 years?). It seems all of the micro's in Ontario have banned together - but for what reason? Does anyone know who runs this association? Do they combine other brewery functions like purchasing product as one (caps, bottles, labels etc...).

[Beer Geek]

I've been hearing ad's on the radio about the Ontario Craft Brewers Association. I understand they received a grant from the Government to promote themselves (5 million over 5 years?).

Here are a few Bartowel threads on the topic.

http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=1690

http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=1645

It seems all of the micro's in Ontario have banned together - but for what reason?

At this point its mostly for marketing purposes and to fight the government on taxes.

Does anyone know who runs this association?

John Hay is heading it (correct me if I’m wrong but he’s an ex-Molson marketing guy) and the rest is made up of representatives from each of the member breweries. But just like everything else, the larger you are the more control you have. I've heard that each brewery is given a number of votes (or representatives) based on volumes of beer they produce a year. This means the Brick & Steamwhistle have the most say. But I could be full of it too!

Do they combine other brewery functions like purchasing product as one (caps, bottles, labels etc...).

When I spoke to guys from the Brick last year, they said that purchasing product together is something they would like to do somewhere down the road. Baby steps I guess! The association has been around for a 100 years in some form or another, but not until this marketing blitz have they been able to actually work together as a team. I believe most of this is time constraints rather then not getting along. When it comes to small breweries, the Owner is the brewer, is the marketing guy and in Ken's case the grain shoveller!

[Rob Creighton]

It seems all of the micro's in Ontario have banned together - but for what reason? Does anyone know who runs this association? Do they combine other brewery functions like purchasing product as one (caps, bottles, labels etc...).

The reason can be seen simply in the mega-millions that the Ontario Wine Council has benefitted from their VQA and thumb-print programs. They have offered their experience and history to us to get up and running and we appreciate it greatly. The Ontario wineries would still be selling Baby Duck today if they had not banded together and built a legitimate brand statement out of nothing.

John Hay and his team are professional marketers and government lobbyists that were sorely needed by our industry. They understand how the game is played. If anything can be said about us is that we were grossly negative about everything! In the early days, we never said anything positive about government, the distribution system or our competitors. We were constantly complaining about downtrodden we were and how evil everybody else was.

John has revealed to us that we must put a positive foot forward and let the Ontario consumer know the true benefits of beer with flavour.

As to joint purchasing, the possibility exists but is truly a low priority in the face of our other challenges. There has always been a limited number of players providing products to the brewing industry as a whole and this will not change. Our packaging specifications are often unique to the beverage industry (wet-strength, etc..). If even one supplier offers common pricing to us all, then we all benefit from the practice whether we purchase from them or not. It sets a standard of reasonable pricing and common standards.

[JerCraigs]

John Hay is heading it (correct me if I’m wrong but he’s an ex-Molson marketing guy) and the rest is made up of representatives from each of the member breweries. But just like everything else, the larger you are the more control you have. I've heard that each brewery is given a number of votes (or representatives) based on volumes of beer they produce a year. This means the Brick & Steamwhistle have the most say. But I could be full of it too!

That's not exactly true I don't think. As I understood it, and I don't want to speak on their behalf in any way, they voted on representatives from X groups of breweries based on size. So for example - 2 wee, 2 not so wee, and 2 frickin huge (huge is of course relative). Now obviously there are only so many breweries at a given size and the lower the # of guys in your group the more likely you are to be the representative for your group.

This is not necessarily automatically a good thing, for as you say below our micro brewers wear many hats, and while acting as your brewery "weight class" rep might give you a louder voice, it does mean more work!

As with any association it is only as good as the communication between its members and my impression is that they are making good strides - the joint radio ads and the website for example. In any event, as long as I can keep getting a tasty beverage I'm happy. If more people start buying micros I am even happier!

[Josh Oakes]

It seems all of the micro's in Ontario have banned together - but for what reason? Does anyone know who runs this association? Do they combine other brewery functions like purchasing product as one (caps, bottles, labels etc...).

The reason can be seen simply in the mega-millions that the Ontario Wine Council has benefitted from their VQA and thumb-print programs. They have offered their experience and history to us to get up and running and we appreciate it greatly. The Ontario wineries would still be selling Baby Duck today if they had not banded together and built a legitimate brand statement out of nothing.

They also started making stuff that wasn't Baby Duck. Too many Ontario micros are still making Baby Duck and that could undermine the entire effort. 90% of the volume from so-called craft brewers isn't "beer with flavour" at all, just boring beer from a non-macro. Woo hoo. I maintain my position (and I'm not the only person who feels this way) that without braver products the effort will at best succeed in creating more consumers for mediocre craft beer, not really good beer. And no, Steamwhistle isn't something you trade up from.

[Beer Geek]

That's not exactly true I don't think. As I understood it, and I don't want to speak on their behalf in any way, they voted on representatives from X groups of breweries based on size. So for example - 2 wee, 2 not so wee, and 2 frickin huge (huge is of course relative). Now obviously there are only so many breweries at a given size and the lower the # of guys in your group the more likely you are to be the representative for your group.

Yes Jeremy I believe you’re right, from what I’ve heard that is how it works. Although, I’m sure someone from the inside could tighten up the explanation, but I think we have the gist of it. I was close! I knew it had something to do with Reps & volume of beer produced. I remember one (un-named) brewery complaining that it’s difficult for the small guys because there are so many in their group and only 2 Representatives, where the bigger breweries get an automatic by because they are the only one at that level of production. Glade to hear things are moving along with the OCB and hopefully by banding together it will give them a fighting chance.