Labatt

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Labatt Brewing Company Ltd.

Location	London, Ontario Canada
Owner	InBev
Year opened	1847
Active Beers
Blue	Pilsner
Kokanee	Lager
Lucky	Lager
50	Ale
Labatt Blue Light	Light lager
Labatt Lite	Light lager
Labatt Select	Light lager
Alexander Keith's IPA	India Pale Ale
Labatt Velvet Cream	Stout

Labatt Brewing Company Ltd. is a Canadian beer company, founded by John Kinder Labatt in 1847 in London, Ontario. In 1995 it was purchased by Belgian brewer Interbrew, now known as InBev.

1 History
2 Operations
3 Corporate activities
4 Marketing
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

Labatt founded the company with the purchase of London's Simcoe Street brewery in partnership with Samuel Eccles. By 1853 Labatt had become the brewery's sole proprietor, and he later renamed it John Labatt's Brewery. With the completion of the Great Western Railway in the 1850s, Labatt's operations expanded to export beer to the rest of the country. By the early 20th century Labatt was a corporation, its shares distributed among John Labatt's seven daughters and two sons.

In 1915 Prohibition began in Canada when public bars were banned in Saskatchewan. A year later prohibition was instituted in Ontario as well, affecting all 64 breweries in the province. Although some provinces totally banned alcohol manufacture, some permitted production for export to the United States. Labatt survived by producing full strength beer for export south of the border and by introducing two "temperance ales" with less than two per cent alcohol for sale in Ontario. However, the Canadian beer industry suffered a second blow when Prohibition began in the U.S. in 1919. When Prohibition was repealed in Ontario in 1926, just 15 breweries remained and only Labatt retained its original management. This resulted in a strengthened industry position. In 1945 Labatt became a publicly traded company with the issuance of 900,000 shares.

In 1951 Labatt launched its Pilsener Lager; when it was introduced in Manitoba, the beer was nicknamed "Blue" for the colour of its label and the company's support of Winnipeg's Canadian Football League (CFL) franchise, the Blue Bombers. The nickname stuck and in 1979 Labatt Blue claimed top spot in the Canadian beer market. It lost this status in the late eighties to Molson Canadian, but over the next decade, periodically regained top spot as consumer preferences fluctuated. In 2004, Budweiser took the top spot, pushing Blue to third for the first time in twenty-five years.[1][2] However, Labatt Blue remains the most popular Canadian beer in the world based upon worldwide sales.

Labatt was also the majority owner of the Toronto Blue Jays from their inception in 1976 until September 1, 2000, when Rogers Communications purchased 80% ownership of the team.

Labatt's innovations include the introduction of the first twist-off cap on a refillable bottle (1984). In 1989, Labatt's had the opportunity to hire Canadian model Pamela Anderson as a Labatt's Blue Zone Girl after she was picked out of the crowd by a TV camera man at a BC Lions football game wearing a Blue Zone crop-top. Photographer and boyfriend, Dann Ilicic, produced the Blue Zone Girl poster on his own after Labatt's refused to have anything thing to do with it. Later, Labatt's did buy 1000 posters to deal with consumer demand.

In 1991 Labatt was acquired by the large Belgian multinational brewer InBev.

Labatt is part-owner of Brewers Retail Inc., operator of The Beer Store retail chain, which--protected by legislation--has an over 90% market share of Ontario beer sales.

In early 2007, Labatt's made an offer to purchase Lakeport Brewing Company of Hamilton, Ontario.

[edit] Operations

Canada

United States

Norwalk, Connecticut (Former US headquarters)
Buffalo, New York (Current US Headquarters)

Labatt's Toronto brewery ceased operations in 2006 and demolished by 2007, thus ending the brewery's ties to the city.

[edit] Corporate activities

Labatt has sponsored the construction of many buildings in London, including Labatt Park, the John Labatt Centre, and the John Labatt Visual Arts Centre at the University of Western Ontario. Bessie Labatt's son Arthur Labatt is the current chancellor of UWO. In 1998 Labatt announced a 20 year sponsorship agreement with the now defunct Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals), which included naming rights for a downtown ballpark, which was never built. From 1992-1997 they sponsored the English football team Nottingham Forest

[edit] Marketing

Labatt Blue is sold in all provinces of Canada (and much of the northern United States), although in Quebec it is sold under the name Labatt Bleue, with a slightly different logo. Aside from the name, the red maple leaf on the logo has also been changed to a red fleur-de-lis type of image. (See images below.)