Canada: Brewing giant Sleeman makes bid for Calgary’s Wild Rose Brewery

One of Calgary’s best known craft breweries could become part of the Sleeman empire, if shareholders vote in favour of an offer by the Guelph-based beer-maker, the Calgary Herald reported on April 30.

Wild Rose Brewery — which has been in operation since 1996 and is one of Alberta’s largest craft breweries — is the target of a takeover bid by Sleeman Breweries, the third-largest brewer in Canada and a subsidiary of the Japanese multinational beer giant Sapporo Breweries Ltd.

Wild Rose is a privately held company and details of the purchase offer have not been disclosed. However, Wild Rose CEO Bill McKenzie confirmed in an email that a shareholder vote will be held May 9.

“Wild Rose has received an offer from Sleeman and we have sent this offer to our shareholders for approval,” McKenzie said. “We plan to issue a press release on Friday, May 10.”

Wild Rose Brewery, which was founded by Mike Tymchuk and Alan Yule, began producing draft beer out of a Calgary industrial park in 1996, and in 2006 moved to a converted Quonset hut at Currie Barracks. In 2013, the brewery moved to a new C$5-million, 40,000-square-foot production facility in Foothills Industrial Park.

That facility may be the big attraction for Sleeman, which doesn’t have as much of a presence in Western Canada as it does in the rest of the country, said Edmonton-based beer blogger and industry watcher Jason Foster.

Foster added he believes the Calgary-based brewery “overbuilt” when it constructed its new facility in 2013.

“I think they had intentions to expand, and that expansion didn’t happen as quickly as they anticipated,” Foster said. “So when I look at it from Sleeman’s perspective, having that extra capacity in that brewery is probably a very handy thing for them, in terms of adding new products or producing some of their products in Calgary.”

Foster said if the deal goes through, it will mark the first acquisition of an Alberta-based craft brewer by a major international company. While most fans of Wild Rose brews (such as Wraspberry Ale and Velvet Fog) will not care about the company’s ownership structure, Foster said hardcore craft beer fans may be turned off in the same way they were when Vancouver-based indie label Granville Island Brewing was purchased by Molson Coors in 2009.

“For people who pay attention to the scene, I think it will matter — actually, a lot. It will be harder for them to embrace Wild Rose,” Foster said.

Wild Rose Brewery currently has 82 employees and, according to its website, produced 17,339 hectolitres of beer last year — just under nine per cent of all Canadian craft beer production. McKenzie, who has been CEO since 2012, said the company has seen double-digit growth annually for the past seven years.

Sapporo Breweries Ltd. bought Sleeman in 2006 for C$400 million. Its Canadian brands include Sleeman, Okanagan Spring and Unibroue, while its international portfolio includes labels such as Sapporo, Old Milwaukee and Pabst Blue Ribbon.

01 May, 2019