Canada, ON: Beer companies struggling under Ontario's expansion of sales to corner stores

In 2024, Ontario’s government announced its commitment to expanding the province’s alcohol marketplace. The phased expansion began in August, when up to 450 grocery stores that were licensed to sell beer, cider, and wine, were permitted to start selling ready-to-drink beverages, Daily Hive reported on December 31.

After October 31, all eligible grocery and big-box stores were allowed to sell beer, cider, wine, and ready-to-drink beverages, including in large pack sizes. While the changes have made it more convenient for Ontario residents to access and purchase alcohol, some local craft breweries are expressing concern about the long-term impacts on their businesses.

Blood Brothers Brewing, a craft beer microbrewery located at 165 Geary Avenue, is one of the many businesses expressing skepticism about the provincial expansion.

The brewery was founded in 2015 by Dustin and Brayden Jones and serves up to 19 beers on tap along with southern comfort dishes in a renovated hundred-year-old horse stable.

The business expressed concerns about the government’s alcohol expansion to blogTO, noting that the new policies might be primarily benefiting foreign-owned companies versus local producers.

“The state of our business prior to the expansion of alcohol was a steady growth pattern year over year. The pandemic had our online sales breaking records, but the transition from online to in-person shopping had traded places,” the brewery said in a statement to blogTO.

“We were very skeptical of the benefits for small craft brewers. It is very apparent that foreign macro brewers are the ones benefiting from this expansion. One of our largest streams of revenue (our bottle shop) is now up for competition with every corner store in our area and, even though we would gladly sell these corner stores our products, they are not interested in selling craft beer.”

The business added that the provincial expansion has negatively affected their sales.

“Most breweries we speak to are experiencing the same decline in sales. It’s a bit concerning to see our government not support small businesses,” they stated.

“We pay the highest taxes for alcohol in the country making it extremely difficult to compete with large macro breweries. Due to this, you see much less craft beer consumption in Ontario compared to other provinces in the country.”

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