E-Malt.com News article: Canada, ON: The Gananoque Brewing Company receives C$60,000 federal grant for expansion

The Gananoque Brewing Company is expanding its brewery on downtown King Street thanks to a C$60,000 federal grant, The Kingston Whig-Standard reported on February 23.

In announcing the grant on behalf of the Thousand Islands community Development Corporation, Leeds-Grenville MP Gord Brown said the money will allow the brewery to expand its fermenting capacity and purchase a canning machine to can its beer in town.

Bruce Davis, founder of the brewery, said the money will allow the company to move more of its production to Gananoque.

The brewery cuurently produces 150,000 litres of beer a year at its plant in the town's Bell Tower mall. The beer is shipped in draught kegs for distribution to its commercial clients in bars and restaurants. The beer in bottles sold at LCBO outlets and Beer Stores is made at a brewery in the Niagara region. Davis said the new canning machine would allow more of the beer to be made in Gananoque and gradually the production will move here.

The GBC now sells its bottled beer in 27 LCBOs and seven beer stores, and Davis said putting the beer in cans will help expand its market further.

Many customers prefer the convenience of cans, and the canning machine will allow production of larger single-service can and many large venues such as the Kingdome in Kingston only allow cans because bottles can be dangerous.

The expansion of the brewery will create four full-time jobs in addition to the 12 full- and part-time jobs now at the brewery, Brown said.

Davis said the C$60,000 is matching funds contingent at the brewery raising the same amount. He said the money would be raised locally from existing investors and from a promotion that the brewery will announce in the coming weeks.

The announcement of the federal money caps a good year for the Gananoque Brewing Company, which has struggled in the past. It finally opened its Gananoque brewery after years of producing its beer in Niagara, starting bottling beer for the LCBO market and just recently began selling its suds in the Beer Stores.

Davis said the new plans have the potential of increasing production in Gananoque by 40 per cent in the next year.


25 February, 2015