NB Liquor will stock own brand of beer in fight for sales

NB Liquor is going to introduce its own brand of beer as the corporation attempts to stop New Brunswick consumers from crossing the border into Quebec to buy cheap suds.

The new brand will be available by the spring and cost less than regular beer at NB Liquor outlets. However, it will still be more expensive than that in the neighbouring province.

Nora Lacey, spokeswoman for NB Liquor, said there will be two types of the new beer available in 12-can packages and they will be brewed in-province.

"There's no other liquor jurisdiction in Canada that has a private-label beer," she said.

But who's doing the brewing and what the products are will not be revealed until the brand goes on sale this spring.

Lacey said the NB Liquor beer will be of top quality and cheaper than the $21 cost for 12 cans of regular beer.

Lacey said the pending brand of beer will always be sold at a discount.

"We are going to guarantee that these 12-pack of cans will be available at the lowest possible price, $18.67," she said.

Dana Clendenning, the company's president and chief executive officer, told a legislative committee recently that NB Liquor is bleeding sales to Quebec because of its cheap beer. Even with this new brand of beer, NB Liquor said it won't be able to beat Quebec's price of $10.82 for 12 cans of beer before taxes and deposit.

Lacey said that's because grocery and convenience stores sell beer in Quebec and each of those individual outlets can negotiate with breweries and set its own price.