Thornbury, Ontario – The King Brewery, Thornbury Village Cidery brands have consolidated under one single entity, the Thornbury Beverage Company. Provincial Beverages of Canada Inc. announced the launch of the Thornbury Beverage Company brand in June 2015. This type of brand consolidation does not happen often in the craft beer industry and What’s Brewin’ was wondering how and why this change came about.

What’s Brewin’ recently spoke with Bryan Watts, the VP Marketing and Sales for the Provincial Beverages about this re-branding initiative. “We had to make the difficult decision about what to do with the King Brewery brand. We noticed consumers would walk right by our award winning King Brewery products on the LCBO and TBS shelves. We found the King brand was not resonating with the craft beer consumer. We met with the LCBO and the TBS and they both strongly suggested that we re-visit our product branding and packaging formats. So we did and with the success of the Thornbury brand the need for consolidation became obvious. Since the re-branding to Thornbury Beverage Company and the change from 341ml bottles to uniquely labeled 473ml cans, sales have gone thru the roof. We have significantly exceeded the retail sales of the old King Brewery product that was on the LCBO and TBS shelves. But let’s be very clear, the product in each of the new re-branded cans is still the same award winning beer”, Watts said.

The Thornbury Beverage Company launch includes the re-branding of the award-winning foundation King Brewery Lagers to unique Thornbury Beverage Company brands. King Vienna Lager is now Jubilee Amber Lager, the King Dark Lager has become Dark Horse Lager, and the King Pilsner is now known as Pickup Truck Pilsner. Earlier this year, the Thornbury Beverage Company also introduced a new craft beer called Thornbury Blue Mountain Lager. It is a classic German Helles style lager brewed with hops grown locally in the Blue Mountain region. “The response to the draft product has been tremendous and as a result we plan to offer this as our fourth foundation beer in 473mL cans at The Beer Store and our Brewery Retail Store starting Thanksgiving weekend”, Watts said.

Watts informed What’s Brewin’ of the flagship location of the Thornbury Beverage Company. “We own a big, beautiful 55,000 sq/ft building in Thornbury where we produce Thornbury Premium Apple Cider. This building is a fixture in the community has a lot of character and history. We plan on adding a brewery to the Thornbury facility in the very near future, along with a distillery, retail store, tasting room and restaurant. As far as the current brewery goes, we rent the building in Nobleton where the former King Brewery has operated for 15 years, so the moving brewing operations to Thornbury makes a lot of sense for the future growth and profitability of the company.”

When asked about the Uxbridge project and the Barn Door Seasonal Lagers Watts informed us, “Uxbridge is still very much in our expansion plans. However, for the time being we are focusing on completing the Thornbury Beverage Company brand launch and expanding our current facility in Thornbury. We will address Uxbridge and our seasonal beers when the Thornbury initiatives are well underway.”

“A complete re-branding and expansion is a big thing so we really appreciate the support we have received from the LCBO, The Beer Store, Licences customers, the media and of course all the loyal craft beer drinkers out there!”, added Watts.