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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Labatt Closing Hamilton Lakeport Brewery

According to the Hamilton Spectator, and picked up by the Toronto Star, Labatt Breweries of Canada will be shutting down the Lakeport Brewery in Hamilton, ON on April 30th affecting 143 employees.

Labatt purchased the brewery (which is best known for their buck-a-beer brands) back in 2007 from Teresa Cascioli for $43.5 million. Labatt now says that the cost to operate the Hamilton brewery is too high and the production of the Lakeport brands will be moved to the London plant.

The paper states that some of the workers feel that the move has to do with Labatt trying to get out of the buck-a-beer market.  The province of Ontario raised the minimum price of a 24 pack of beer in December of 2008 to $25.60 yet there are still numerous brands flooding that piece of the market and Labatt already has more than a handful in their ever expanding portfolio.   I guess we'll see in due time.

2 comments:

4 Dog Brewery said...

It won't be missed. IMO, crappy beer. I never like the taste of any of their products. I do, however, feel sorry for the people who happen to work for Lakeport in Hamilton.

Unknown said...

Here's an interesting turn of events:
http://www.stoneycreeknews.com/news/article/206699

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