BC Breweries by Production 2014
Ever wonder how big the breweries in BC really are? We all like to talk a good talk about huge year over year growth, but how fast are our favourite brands getting big?
Sadly, no one really talks size or growth, as most breweries are privately owned and not required to share any of those embarrassing financial tidbits. Luckily for us, the LDB is required to post their annual finances, and since all beer in BC must first be sold to the LDB this report acts as a sort of proxy for brewery size.
Below I’ve tabulated the 2014 financials for each brewery that I can identify in the report, along with their 2013 numbers, and an approximate guess for beer production in hectolitres. Previously I’d used numbers ranging from $375 to $450 per hectolitre calculation, but this year I changed it up and went with $300. This is primarily because this year I learnt a bit more about how breweries are taxed, and that these financial statements are post-tax.
The degree to which these hectolitre calculations should be trusted is reflected by how easily I just changed them out: don’t trust them. These are very approximate numbers only, and should only be used for rough relative comparisons. A major brewery like Pacific Western will be lower, and a brewery that solely sells draught and growler products like Brassneck might be higher.
All columns are sortable. Just click.
Some tidbits:
- For the first time, several breweries appear to be in serious trouble. Tin Whistle, Wolf, Craig Street, and R&B are all hurting big time. If this keeps up, expect some cheap equipment to go up for sale soon.
- Mid-sizes breweries are broadly down as a trend. Russell, Big Rock, Granville Island, OK Spring, etc are all hurting.
- HUGE years for Hoyne, Driftwood, Parallel 49 and Central City, but especially Hoyne. Great work, Sean!
- The shift in strategy for some of the smaller breweries is evident: Longwood, Moon Under Water and Spinnakers bottling efforts are definitely paying dividends.
- Pacific Western was doing great up until this year. They’re somewhat up market from Molson, so I figured that was due to adventurous drinkers trying something different. Their ~10% drop this year is likely due to adventurous drinks moving down the shelf a bit more to actual good beer.
- Holy shit. Check out Brassneck’s numbers, and then realize they weren’t even open for HALF OF THE PERIOD OF THIS REPORT. Wowza.
- I included Big Rock here, too. They’re building a brewery in Vancouver so, uh, welcome to BC guys.
- The various Mark James properties have been broken out individually. I think this has something to do with Red Truck’s massive production capacity increase and taxes.
Disclaimers (repeated from 2013):
- Because of the craziness of shadow brands and contract brewing, it’s hard to split out some of these numbers. OK Spring, in particular, also produces Sleeman locally, and those sales are blended in.
- Some breweries are missing, including Coal Harbour and others. I have no idea why. They are likely running under either a numbered company or a name I don’t recognize.
- I have excluded Labatt’s (Kokanee) simply because it would be impossible to separate out beer produced in-province from imports.
- Likewise, I have skipped Mark Anthony Group (Turning Point/Stanley Park) because most of their money comes from wine (Mission Hill)
Click headers to sort
Brewery | 2013 Income | 2014 Income | alias/aka | 2014 Production (hl) | Growth |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sleeman Breweries Ltd | 100826104 | 97421073 | Sleeman / OK Spring | 324736 | -3.4% |
Pacific Western Brewing Company | 37038122 | 33563099 | 111876 | -9.4% | |
Granville Island Brewing Company | 23597424 | 22831746 | 76105 | -3.2% | |
Phillips Brewing Co | 14527143 | 17209987 | 57366 | 18.5% | |
Northam Brewery Lp | 12412210 | 14093947 | Whistler / Bowen | 46979 | 13.5% |
Vancouver Island Brewing Company | 8663020 | 8082863 | 26942 | -6.7% | |
Driftwood Brewing | 4049056 | 5843817 | 19479 | 44.3% | |
Big Rock Brewery Inc | 6487218 | 5349530 | 17831 | -17.5% | |
Fireweed Brewing Corp | 5391621 | 5328876 | Tree | 17762 | -1.2% |
Lighthouse Brewing Company Inc | 5156097 | 4962174 | 16540 | -3.8% | |
Parallel 49 Brewing Company Ltd | 1452960 | 4699953 | 15666 | 223.5% | |
Central City Brewing Co | 2717936 | 4043560 | 13478 | 48.8% | |
Russell Brewing Co Limited | 4162692 | 3917373 | 13057 | -5.9% | |
Allen Brands Inc | 2212115 | 2926208 | Big Surf / Prohibition | 9754 | 32.3% |
Howe Sound Brewing | 2371393 | 2560623 | 8535 | 8.0% | |
Nelson Brewing Company | 2444327 | 2405093 | 8016 | -1.6% | |
Hoyne Brewing Company Ltd | 1204082 | 2384445 | 7948 | 98.0% | |
Dead Frog Brewery | 1893880 | 2065463 | 6884 | 9.1% | |
Mt Begbie Brewing Company Limited | 1701101 | 1874282 | 6247 | 10.2% | |
Fernie Brewing Co | 1468056 | 1670146 | 5567 | 13.8% | |
Cannery Brewing Co | 1391236 | 1338593 | 4461 | -3.8% | |
R&B Brewing Inc | 1218933 | 1047154 | 3490 | -14.1% | |
Tuff City Brewing Ltd | 532850 | 956717 | Tofino | 3189 | 79.5% |
Townsite Brewing Inc. | 561253 | 799821 | 2666 | 42.5% | |
Steamworks Brewing Company Ltd | 788268 | 2627 | 100% | ||
Gulf Islands Brewery Limited | 494823 | 656752 | 2189 | 32.7% | |
Spinnakers Brew Pub Inc | 386987 | 611865 | 2039 | 58.1% | |
Salsbury Drive Holdings Ltd | 514694 | Brassneck | 1715 | 100% | |
Longwood Brew Pub Limited | 250872 | 495047 | 1650 | 97.3% | |
Crannog Ales Limited | 367742 | 399852 | 1332 | 8.7% | |
Four Winds Brewing Company Ltd | 365473 | 1218 | 100% | ||
Bridge Brewing Corp | 58606 | 354781 | 1182 | 505.4% | |
33 Acres Brewing Company Inc | 341586 | 1138 | 100% | ||
Storm Brewing Limited | 353287 | 336433 | 1121 | -4.8% | |
Moon Under Water Brewery Ltd | 97534 | 310847 | 1036 | 218.7% | |
Arrowhead Brewing Company | 69882 | 301396 | 1004 | 331.3% | |
Old Yale Brewing Co Limited | 178992 | 248412 | 828 | 38.8% | |
Persephone Brewing Company Inc | 247804 | 826 | 100% | ||
Powell Street Craft Brewery Inc | 137405 | 458 | 100% | ||
Mission Springs Developements Limited | 39391 | 114057 | 380 | 189.6% | |
Tin Whistle Brewing Co | 449938 | 100515 | 335 | -77.7% | |
Wolf Brewing Company | 200198 | 100045 | 333 | -50.0% | |
Big River Brewing Company | 46422 | 76883 | 256 | 65.6% | |
Bomber Brewing Corporation | 69503 | 231 | 100% | ||
Deep Cove Brewers And Distillers Inc | 68699 | 228 | 100% | ||
Green Leaf Brewing Corporation | 66654 | 222 | 100% | ||
Shuswap Lake Brewing Company | 52840 | 62931 | Barley Station Brewpub | 209 | 19.1% |
Yaletown Brewing Co | 44347 | 147 | 100% | ||
Craig Street Brewing Co Ltd | 63910 | 43137 | 143 | -32.5% | |
Patricia Hotel Vancouver | 38787 | 40202 | 134 | 3.6% | |
RDO Brewing Ventures Ltd | 36046 | Barkerville | 120 | 100% | |
Big Ridge Brewing Company | 32591 | 31508 | 105 | -3.3% | |
Three Ranges Brewing Company Ltd | 28436 | 94 | 100% | ||
Freddy’s Brew Pub | 26466 | 88 | 100% | ||
Barley Mill Brewpub | 27327 | 0.0 | 0 | -100.0% | |
Plan B Brewing Co | 111483 | 0.0 | 0 | -100.0% | |
Avalon Brewing Co | 353808 | 0.0 | Old Red Truck Location | 0 | -100.0% |
* Arrowhead and Bridge numbers are adjusted to approximate annual production, as they were not open for the entirety of the reporting period.
Interesting.
I think I already know the answer to my question, but does beer that is being sold outside of BC/Canada need to first sold to the LDB ? In other words, would beer sold outside of our province show up in these numbers? I don’t believe they would.
Beer sold in Alberta (and other provinces) by breweries like P49, Whistler, etc would account for a decent chunk of their sales. Or to Korea by Mission Springs, Phillips in Japan.
Tyler
27 Dec 14 at 07:18
These numbers won’t include exports out of country or out of province.
Also, (insanely) the payments made to breweries will include a deposit of $30 per keg which breweries are (insanely) required to remit to the LDB, which the LDB then looks at, mulls over, and returns to the brewery two weeks later.
This obviously isn’t the 2014 calendar year. What period does this cover, Chuck?
Ben
28 Dec 14 at 09:26
@Tyler – Yup, you’re correct. Out of province deals are not reflected in the LDB payments.
@Ben – LDB’s FY is April to March, so this covers April 2013 to March 2014. That’s why you don’t show up 🙂
chuck
28 Dec 14 at 14:36
Chuck, next year the numbers will include our first 10 1/2 months. Remind me when it happens and I’ll tell you how accurate your volume estimate is.
Ben
29 Dec 14 at 20:19
So I’m trying to figure out how these numbers work and it’s surprisingly hard to figure out the distribution and taxing process for craft breweries. Do you know of any resources that describe it thouroughly?
Do the numbers in the LDB report include tasting room sales? Growler fills? Bottles to local stores?
Are they wholesale price? Total revenue?
Byron
9 Feb 16 at 19:13
It is indeed hard to figure out. You’ll need someone with access to the LDB tax/pricing system to walk you through the markups. I’ve seen screen shots, but alas I cannot share those due to confidentiality agreements.
The numbers I report are payments from the LDB to the various booze producers. These totals include all payments from the LDB to the breweries in question, which by law includes all alcohol sales made by those breweries. Even if that alcohol did not leave the physical brewery (eg tasting room) or ever go through the LDB itself (bottles to local stores or growlers) the money must first go to the LDB, and then be paid out to the brewery a few months later.
As these are prices paid to the manufacturer, they are what you’d call “wholesale.” Markups made by the Govt Liquor Stores or your local LRS are not included, as those funds go to the GLS and LRS respectively, not the brewery.
chuck
9 Feb 16 at 19:46