This is the second time Benjie Potvin said he and his co-owner of Full Beard Brewing – a craft brewery in Timmins – are navigating a tariff war with the Americans.
“So back in 2018, it was 10 per cent. So now, we’re really struggling,” said Potvin.
“So if I paid $0.50 for a can, now it’s $0.95 … Remember when Doug Ford did a buck of beer? Well, we’re paying a buck more a beer now just in costs and raw materials, let alone the grains, the hops."
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While Canada has some great grain companies, he said, the crop doesn’t grow as well due to the long winters so it is often sourced from other countries.
“It’s an unknown right now, a scary unknown,” he said.
While he’s acquired more business experience over the past seven years, he said he’s hoping to weather the newest financial squeeze.
“We’re prepared for ... 280 days to 365 days and hoping that ... our new government and stuff will get things ... put aside,” Potvin said.
His team of 13 employees -- five of whom work full-time -- has a great rapport with craft brewery followers throughout the north and beyond.
There are 14 different brews on the menu with another set to launch this week, just in time for the economic cross-border trade war.
“That one’s going to be fun and I think it’ll be a great marketing-timing kind of position beer ... I think we’re going to ... shoot for the fence on this one,” Potvin said.
“It is definitely a strong kick to the throat.”
Things could be worse in life, he said, “we’ll get through it.”
