Labatt rejects Minhas Lakeport offer

Minhas Creek Brewing says Labatt has rejected its offer to buy the Lakeport Brewery in Hamilton.

In a statement released in Calgary Wednesday, Ravinder and Manjit Minhas say they offered to purchase the majority of the brewery assets from Labatt.

Despite the rejection, the Ravinder Minhas says he and his sister have decided to pursue the idea of opening  a brewery in Hamilton. Reports this morning say Minhas will consider exploring co-packaging  - bottling other products under license - at a city operation. Ravinder Minhas said he plans to be in Hamilton late this week and over the weekend exploring options.

Labatt, which bought the Burlington Street plant in 2007, announced at the end of March it would close the facility and move production of Lakeport brands to its key brewery in London.

Despite local pleas to leave production equipment behind so a craft brewer or another beverage maker could move in, Labatt is now stripping the plant.

Minhas says its offer did not include the equipment Labatt has declared it would move, as well as any of the trademarks associated with the brewery.

Minhas Creek Brewing also say it offered fair market value for this equipment and had already budgeted up to $50 million for this expansion. 

The statement issued Wednesday says the Minhas' received a response this week from AB InBev Labatt stating it would not sell any of the equipment and would be using it in their other facilities. 

“From Minhas Creek's experience in the brewing business they simply don't believe it is practical to retrofit this equipment; rather they suspect the vast majority of this brewing equipment will sit in the Hamilton facility and will simply collect dust until it is cut out for scrap metal,” the company says.

Comments

[Marie Mushing - People In Connection]

It amazes me that a company the size of Labatt's is so scared by a small brewing company that it won't let them purchase that property. My hope is that Minhas Creek Brewing company finds another awesome location in Hamilton and builds another fabulous brewing company in the heart of Hamilton... there's more than one way to get around the Big Bad Brewing Companies. I would love to invite someone from Minhas to contact me at marie@peopleinconnection.com as we would be very interested in doing an interview with them on our Internet TV show at www.peopleinconnection.com.

[John Kendall]

I just sent the Labatt Company a very angry e-mail about this plant closure & their refusal to sell it. They will pay dearly for their arrogance towards the good people of Hamilton.
I hope another maker will re-open & re-hire the workers so they can eat into Labatt's market share.