Banded Peak Brewing, a craft brewery based in Calgary, Canada, has been acquired by Labatt Breweries of Canada, a division of the world’s largest brewer AB InBev. Terms of the deal have not been revealed. The deal became known just two days after Labatt announced to buy craft distiller Goodridge & Williams from Delta, British Columbia (inside.beer, 28.1.2020).
The brewery was opened in 2016 by Alex Horner and some childhood friends and has in the meantime become a staple in the local community in Calgary with an annual production of 3,000 hl.
According to the agreement, Labatt will oversee operations while the tap room and brewery will remain standalone entities in the hands of Horner. It is not planned to change recipes or the product itself but to increase production capacity by adding new tanks and to increase distribution all over the province.
“The team here at Banded Peak has done an amazing job creating the portfolio that they have. They innovate like crazy at the highest quality,” said Rob Legate, Vice President High End, who oversees Labatt’s craft beer activities.
“We’re excited to have the same people making the same great beer, just hopefully more of it, and we can leverage our scale to help them bring those amazing beers to more Albertans across the province,” Legate said.
“We’re really excited about the craft beer scene in Alberta, we’ve seen tremendous growth from the craft beer segment in the province, actually outpacing the growth of the segment nationally,” he added. “Banded Peak is outperforming even that.”
The purchase is the second acquisition of a brewery in Calgary within nine months. In May last year, Calgary-based craft beer company Wildrose Brewing was acquired by Sleeman, owned by Japan’s Sapporo Breweries.
Labatt will add Banded Peak to its portfolio of craft brewers which were purchased in the last 5 years. In 2015 the brewer acquired Toronto-based Mill Street Brewery and Vancouver-based Stanley Park Brewing, as well as Quebec’s Microbrasserie Archibald in 2016.
Rob Legate admits that his company has been looking for an Alberta-based brewer with significant growth potential. Banded Peak Brewing in Calgary now perfectly bridges geographically the gap between Labatt’s other three craft beer companies.
