Key takeaways:
- Breweries are hopeful regarding the future after COVID-19 forced them to change their operations radically.
- Previous September, the firm developed from its southwestern Nova Scotia home and opened a taproom in Halifax.
Nova Scotia’s craft brewers have heard the market is flooded with too many breweries for years. Add in the COVID-19 outbreak, and it spelled doom.
“We have a word for that in the enterprise,” stated Brian Titus, the president of Halifax-based Garrison Brewing and the president of the Craft Brewers Association of Nova Scotia.
“It’s called: they’re mistaken. The words saturation and the end of local craft brewing are overstated.”
Two years into a pandemic, only three breweries have closed down lately, stated Titus. Those shutdowns have been compensated by three breweries that opened, something Titus called “really great.”
According to association statistics, about 70 microbreweries in the region employ approximately 1,150 people.
According to its latest quarterly financial effects, Nova Scotia craft beer sales through the NSLC were up 11.3 percent to $6.7 million.
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“I think an industry like this that can survive a two-year-plus pandemic is a good indication of a strong industry,” stated Titus.
Pandemic redefined what breweries do
He said the pandemic forced breweries to look at how they do business and create significant changes. For some, this had set up online shops, presenting home delivery, and diversifying product lines to have non-beer options.
But Titus said some others had made significant actions to expand their businesses.
Halifax’s Good Robot Brewing lately revealed its moving brewing operations from its Robie Street house to a place in Elmsdale that will permit expanded production.
In part, the purpose is to get their beer into other regions. The new facility will also offer to brew, making beer for other breweries.
Source – cbc.ca
