Canada: Labatt keeping Lakeport open

Labatt announced it is cutting 15 jobs from the Burlington Street plant, but said the brewery will continue to operate, Hamilton Spectator published May 8.

It's the first clear statement from the beer giant since it bought the local factory about the future of the 200 production jobs there.

"We are very pleased to have this brewery in with the others," said Neil Sweeney, Labatt's vice-president of corporate affairs. "We've told employees there we want to negotiate a new collective agreement with them and we think this is a viable plant."

Labatt took control of Lakeport March 29 after completing a $200-million purchase of the income trust, which controlled the plant. With its earlier closure of breweries and repeated concerns about sagging sales and growing competition, many feared for the future of local operations.

In an interview, however, Sweeney said Labatt has some lessons to learn from the Hamilton plant.

"Lakeport has done great job of controlling its costs," he said. "We are looking for ways to cut costs on a daily basis."

Labatt Canada president Miguel Patricio reinforced that in a news release announcing an end to the integration effort.

"We are proud to integrate the Lakeport team into Labatt," he said. "Lakeport's brands are a great strategic fit within the overall Labatt beer portfolio. We want to continue the tradition of great beer at fair prices, and capitalize on the loyalty that Lakeport has built with beer drinkers."

In its release, Labatt said "operations employees will continue to brew Lakeport products at the Hamilton facility" while 15 administration, sales and marketing jobs will be centralized.

Lakeport's current sales and marketing plans and buck-a-beer pricing strategy remain in force, Labatt said.

The only unanswered question in the Labatt deal now is an appeal by the federal competition commissioner, against a ruling denying it extra time to review the takeover.

Sweeney said even if the competition commission gets court approval to go ahead with such an appeal, the issue will be how reviews are conducted, not the right-or-wrong of the Lakeport deal.

"We've said all along they didn't need another 30 days on this," Sweeney said. "Anything that happens on this appeal won't affect this deal, it's all about how extensions are granted. We still believe consumers are not going to be impacted by this deal at all."

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