An item in yesterday's paper indicated that Sleeman's had sold their Beck's rights to Oland.
"We will now start pursuing additional premium import brands to replace Beck's," said John Sleeman, company chairman. "As the third-largest brewer in Canada, we are uniquely positioned to provide marketing, distribution and production to foreign brewing partners, and pursuing these strategic partnerships will continue to be a key ingredient of our growth strategy."
I'm thinking that Mr Sleeman's idea of "premium" is different than ours. So I think there are two things we can do here: the optimists amongst us can send him emails listing the premium imported beers we'd like to see him bring in, while the pessimists can send him one with a list of the average beers we expect him to select.
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Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
Can we influence Sleeman's choices?
John Sleeman's involvement with beer began in the 70's when he opened a beer import company. I think it was called the Imported Beer Company! Anyway, his first millions came from there. I'm not sure if you can get him to bring in any incredible (but low sales volume) beers. He is first and foremost a business man. But it can't hurt to suggest. Maybe Old Peculier...
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Josh Oakes
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When Sleeman's bought Beck's, they said they would sell 100,000 hl of the stuff in a couple of years (up from 20000 hl at purchase time). I said they were eating the fly agaric if they thought they could sell that much Beck's. So you can imagine the sigh of relief when Interbrew bought Beck's, giving Sleeman an opportunit to blow out that dog of a brand.
What to replace it with? Aside from the oft-rumoured Sleeman takeover by SAB which would give them Pilsner Urquell to play with, I wouldn't be too surprised to see them start dabbling in one of those Mexican brands we don't see here. A deal with Sam Adams or Pete's Wicked would also fit the bill quite nicely, although US "premium" beers historically fare poorly here (and if you look at the list we've had up here, they're almost all beauties).
Looking at Europe, maybe they'll give Kronenbourg a go? Of course in all selfishness I would suggest that nothing says "premium" like the paper-wrapped bottle of Rodenbach Grand Cru!
What to replace it with? Aside from the oft-rumoured Sleeman takeover by SAB which would give them Pilsner Urquell to play with, I wouldn't be too surprised to see them start dabbling in one of those Mexican brands we don't see here. A deal with Sam Adams or Pete's Wicked would also fit the bill quite nicely, although US "premium" beers historically fare poorly here (and if you look at the list we've had up here, they're almost all beauties).
Looking at Europe, maybe they'll give Kronenbourg a go? Of course in all selfishness I would suggest that nothing says "premium" like the paper-wrapped bottle of Rodenbach Grand Cru!
You're not likely to see Sleeman's distributing Kronenbourg since Kronenbourg is owned by Scottish and Newcastle who are already represented here (I don't know who handles their lines). In my opinion Sleeman's isn't going to handle any craft or micro products as they wouldn't know what to do with them...count on a non-descript, well-known eurolager of some sort. Speaking of that, I guess we don't have enough different Dutch lagers in the market what with multiple sizes and shapes of Heineken, Grolsch and Amstel on the shelves of the LCBO....praise be to the gods that the LCBO has brought us Bavaria lager from Holland which I saw on the shelves of the Queen's Quay store the other day. Finally, their beer portfolio is complete!!!