Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / B.C. ban on U.S. liquor is boosting Canadian whiskey, distiller says

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B.C. ban on U.S. liquor is boosting Canadian whiskey, distiller says · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Early on in this trade dispute with the US, provinces
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: like BC and Ontario retaliated by taking American booze off
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: store shells.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: That in turn.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Seems to have been one of the reasons Trump is
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: escalating the trade war by threatening that fifty percent tariff
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: on a bunch of goods. So we were curious about
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: how the ban on US liquor is affecting Canadian distillers.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: James Lester is the co owner of Sons of Vancouver Distillery,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: known for his rye whiskeys and spirits.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much for coming in.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Thank you Ian.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: First of all, describe your products for us.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we focus on rye forward whiskey. We're in a
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: space where we believe rye is as flavorful as single
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: molt or any other category, but not a lot of
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: people are exploring that. That's where we operate.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, So in BC there is no more liquor on
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: provincial store shelves. Has that had any impact on your
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: business at all?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. In the whiskey industry, it's a really big deal.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: Whiskey is booming. If we were a gin manufacturer of
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: vodka manufacturer, a different story.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: And so I like, bourbon in the United States is
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: like champagne is in France.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: That's a kind of an official name.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So you can't call what you sell bourbon, do you
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: or and I assume other distillers, But do you have
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: a bourbon type whiskey?
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: No, we don't.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: We focus on a rye.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: There's definitely an opportunity in the market for bourbon, but
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: That's not what we did.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So in terms of increased business, So you're selling more
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: at the liquor store, we are, yeah. And are you
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: selling more at bars?
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Definitely more at bars? Yeah, everything is up.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Huh.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: And are the costs different or is it costing those
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: bars more to stock your stuff as opposed to what
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: they brought in from the States before.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Depends what they were buying before what I wouldn't say,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: so yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And can you give me a sense like you're a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: relatively small distiller, right, so what has changed in terms
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: of volume?
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll be honest with you.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: We sold out before and we're still selling out. So
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: for us, we're really just trying to keep as much
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: capacity in house as we can to age it for longer.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: You know, whiskey can't rush a good thing.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yea.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: So for us, we're actually trying to slow down a
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: little bit. We don't distribute as much out East anymore.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: We just be very little in the States now.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you you to speak to other distillers, presumably,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: so give us, really give us the broad view of
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: what's happening in the business. So, as you mentioned, really
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: this is about whiskey, and so for other whiskey makers
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that you talk to, either in BC or elsewhere in
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the country, what's their story.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you kind of have two different categories you have,
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Like you mentioned, a lot of guys jumping on the
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Bourbon train. What's really interesting to see is is distilleries
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: we are focusing on making long term changes. We all
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: assume that a few years from now, two or three years,
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: bourbon will be back on the shelf. But it's the
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: distillers who are focusing on changing habits for consumers and
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: changing habits for bartenders that are going to make the
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: long term.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Shift, which means what where people ask for Jack Daniels
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: or something else. Maybe in two years they may have
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: asked for Sons of Vancouver.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's I think it's the distillers who
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: are building long term habbits with the customer, so when
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: things go back to the way they were before, those
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: customers will ask for Canadian whiskey. Still, I believe what's
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: going to happen is we're going to have a lot
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: of bourbon manufacturers coming in with really big budgets that
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: haven't been used in a few years.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: So a wall is up between Canada and the United
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: States and various industries, including for liquor, and so supposedly
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the walls are supposed to come down between provinces.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Is that happening.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: I've heard a lot of talk about it in general.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: What I've seen is there's not a lot of concrete
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: like rules that have been set out, so I'm yet
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: to see that. I'm a little worried personally that it's
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: going to cost more for the consumer to ship across
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: borders than it does currently.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Right now.
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  Speaker 4: It's a little bit of a gray area, and some
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: provinces participate in some, don't you know. There's a great
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: trade relationship between Manitoba and Saskatchewan, British Columbia, but not
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: so much Alberta. What I've seen is the idea is
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: to create parody and create an even playing field, which
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: usually means you're going to pay more money.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: One last thing, the premier here in British Columbia's when
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: asked whether he was going to overturn the ban and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: allow US liquor back on store shelves here, he said
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: something like hell no or no way in hell that's.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Going to happen. Sounds about I feel about that.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: That's as long as they're playing hardball, we shouldn't back down.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: So do you think I mean, some people thought the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Premier maybe was overreacting and maybe it's time to let
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: in some of that US liquor, and if that appeases
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the Americans, that's not a bad idea.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: Your view of that, Yeah, you know it's not available
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: for you and me as a consumer in the PC
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: liquor store, But if I ran a bar and you
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: ran a private liquor store, it would be available to purchase.
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of optics going on here. It's not
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: that it's not available, it's just that it's not on
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: government shelves, so it's still being sold.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: We're sort of in a middle ground.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: You know, it's not a firm stance, but publicly I
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: think it's a good show of a good show.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Of a hand.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean the BC Liquor Store is still
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I think probably most people in this province that's where
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: they buy their liquor.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Right, the majority. Yeah, absolutely all right.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: James Lester the good Looking Whiskeys, thank you very much
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: for coming in. James is the co owner of the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Sons of Vancouver Distillery