Breweries say beer sales drying up, summer brews stuck in tanks amid Liquor Mart strike

Some Manitoba breweries say they're watching their summer beer sales go down the drain as the full-scale strike at Manitoba Liquor Marts stretches out for almost a week.

Almost all Liquor Mart locations in the province have been closed as strike action and lockouts that began in July escalated into a provincewide strike last week.

That's been a big blow to sales at Stone Angel Brewing Company, says co-owner Paul Clerkin, who estimates that the business gets about two-thirds of its orders through Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries. 

"We're not selling a fraction as much beer as we were prior to the strike," he said.

Clerkin says the strike has also impacted breweries' ability to get new products to market, since Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries has to assign all new products an eight-digit code in order for them to be legally sold in the province. 

But Clerkin says his brewery hasn't been able to get any new codes issued for its summer recipes since unionized workers began job action last month. 

"With summer passing us by because the stores are closed, we run the risk of sitting on a product that we're never actually going to be able to sell, or at least not sell quick enough."

Sean Shoyoqubov of Oxus Brewing Company says they're facing the same issue.

His brewery has a new beer that is currently sitting in a tank because they can't get a new registration number for it, he said.

"Depending on how long this issue continues, we might have to not release that beer and maybe even dump it," said Shoyoqubov.

Listing requests opening: memo

A memo from Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries that was sent to independent brewers says the limited staffing available during the strike has resulted in a "significantly" reduced ability to list new local beer products.

However, the memo says the Crown corporation will open up capacity to process listing requests this Thursday for breweries with new batches that are ready to can or keg, and need to be distributed as soon as possible.

That will allow breweries to sell the new products in their taprooms or private vendors, but not through Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries at this time, the memo says. 

A spokesperson for the corporation said in an emailed statement they are aware of the outsized impact of the strike on small local producers and don't want to see them "negatively affected by the labour disruption."

Shoyoqubov says Oxus has seen a slight uptick in private sales and is grateful for the support during this time. The brewery's taproom was busy over the weekend, he said, and even saw one person bike to their location on Sanford Street, near the Winnipeg International Airport, to pick up some of their beer. 

Still, it's not enough to replace the revenue lost due to the strike. 

"It's a significant portion of our revenue stream."

The full strike is the latest escalation in a weeks-long labour dispute between Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries and the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union, which represents about 1,400 Liquor Mart workers.

The strike, however, may not drag on for that much longer. An independent conciliator is recommending Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries and their unionized employees end the job action and begin binding arbitration, according to a news release sent by the Crown corporation late Monday.

Liquor & Lotteries says it accepts the conciliator's recommendations.

The union told CBC News it's open to the idea, but added that parameters need to be in place around wages.