BCBUSINESS.CA JUNE 2014 BCBusiness 33
President Darryl Frost explains that
Central City's initial plan was to serve
lunch and after-work drinks for ten-
ants of the new
ICBC head offi ce that
was planned for Surrey's Central City
development. When
ICBC pulled out
of the development, Frost had to reas-
sess his business plan, and concluded
that expanding packaged sales was
the route to go. As Central City's beers
found traction in the marketplace, win-
ning multiple awards, the brewery con-
tinued expanding production. When
it fi nally maxed out at 8,000 hl a year,
Frost decided it was time to go big or
go home. "Every time we were making
these little jumps, we weren't becom-
ing more profi table; we were just doing
more capacity," he says. "So the decision
was to either reduce and stay small and
focus on your local market, or jump and
expand out to something like this."
Frost gestures toward the gleaming
new brewery that lies beyond the glass
walls of the Central City conference
room. It's part of the new brewery and
retail store that opened near the south
end of the Pattullo Bridge in February
this year. The facility was fi nanced with
venture capital and made possible by
an agreement with Surrey City Devel-
opment Corp., which would build the
65,000-square-foot building and lease
it to Central City at market rates. Frost
predicts that Central City will produce
25,000 hl this year, and the current site
has the capacity to reach 100,000 hl,
which he expects to hit within fi ve years.
Sure, We Like Our Beer—But Not as Much as New es
B.C. Beer Sales, Big Brewers (annual production more than 160,000 hectolitres)
B.C. Market Share
B.C. Beer Sales, Small Brewers (annual production 160,000 hectolitres or less)
Annual Beer Consumption, Per Capita (2012)
100L
80L
60L
40L
20L
0L
99.6
Newfoundland
& Labrador
94.0
Quebec
88.5
Alberta
81.9
Manitoba
80.5
Saskatchewan
80.3
Canada
79.1
Nova Scotia
77.0
Prince Edward
Island
73.6
New
Brunswick
72.9
Ontario
70.1
British
Columbia
9.9%
2009 2013
19.7%
90.1%
80.2%
Small Brewers
(annual production 160,000
hectolitres or less)
Big Brewers
(annual production more than
160,000 hectolitres)
$860m
$200m
$840m
$820m
$800m
$160m
$180m
$780m
$760m
$740m
$120m
$140m
$720m
$700m
$680m
$80m
$100m
$660m
$60m
2009
2009
2010
2010
2011
2011
2012
2012
2013
2013
SOURCE: Statistics Canada
SOURCE: B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch
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