Canada, ON: New Ontario Brewing Company receives limited liquor sales licence

The New Ontario Brewing Company has received support from North Bay City Council for a Manufacturer’s Limited Liquor Sales Licence, BayToday reported on January 31.

The licence will allow the microbrewery to sell and serve its product to customers as it expands to a new location.

“The approval for our licence is critical. Under Ontario law for a ‘By the Glass’ licence, there needs to be a municipal resolution,” explained company president and brewmaster Michael Harrison.

“The city’s resolution is more about bringing in the tourist element, bringing in the people from town so they can come into the brewery where it is fresh, right off the line and enjoy our product.”

Renovations are currently underway for a move from its current location on Cassells Street to the former Northern Honda building on Seymour.

The brewery has been operating out of its Cassells Street location for nearly five years.

“Moving into this much larger location is going to give us a little bit of room to breathe. But more importantly, room to produce more product, reach a larger marketplace and then hopefully grow employment in our community.”

Harrison is hoping within a couple of years to grow the company footprint by five to 10 full-time jobs, with one to two over the next few months.

“We’re going to go from having a brewery that is about 13-hundred square feet to having around 2-thousand square feet, just to have the customers to come in and have a pint and have that New Ontario experience. So almost doubling our current brewery size just in seating,” Harrison said.

“And then from a production standpoint, we’re going to go from about 500 square feet of production to closer to 6-thousand square feet of production. So, from a production point, we’re going to have a lot more space to bring in more tanks, to bring in new packaging equipment. And then the customers who do come in are going to be able to enjoy our product in a warmer atmosphere.”

There will be seating for around 30 people inside with an outdoor patio for the warmer weather.

“We feel it is going to be a much better customer experience for sure.”

Christian Tremblay, one of the company shareholders says the support the company has received from local licensees has been “overwhelming.”

“Which is why we have the opportunity to grow the business at this point, so we can produce more in terms of volume, and expand outside of North Bay. We already have licensees outside of North Bay, but we’re hoping to gain on that.”

The brewery currently has licensees for beer sales in bars and restaurants which are predominantly in northern Ontario, with a few in the south.

“We distribute to LCBO’s, beer stores and grocery stores all over the province from Windsor to Thunder Bay and Ottawa and pretty much everywhere in between we distribute to our wholesale clients,” said Harrison.

02 February, 2020