Spirit Makers Seeking Support

Monday, 18 May 2015 07:12

President of Spirits Canada Jan Westcott

As the government changes the way beer and wine are sold in the province, distilled spirit makers are feeling left out in the cold.

OXFORD COUNTY - Distilled spirit producers are appealing to residents of Oxford County to help them get a fair shake in grocery stores.

As the government changes the way beer and wine is sold in the province, distilled spirit makers are feeling left out in the cold.

President of Spirits Canada, Jan Westcott believes residents of this area should be concerned with the impact selling beer and wine could have on the distilled spirit market.

"The industry contributes about a billion and a half dollars to the Ontario economy. We are the fourth largest purchaser of corn in Ontario…”

“We create employment in Ontario for about 6,000 people. Whether it's fairness, whether its customer convenience, we just want to make sure that as the government looks at these things - we just want to make sure that spirits are part of the thinking that goes along."

Westcott says when Quebec allowed the sale of beer and wine in their grocery stores, but denied the same access to distilled spirits, the industry slipped from having 40% of the beverage alcohol market to just 13%. According to Westcott, Oxford County should be concerned about a similar situation happening here as the spirits industry is a major purchaser of corn from this area.

"Cities like Woodstock, areas like Oxford County, need to understand and play their part is saying, ‘yeah this part of the business is important to us’, it creates jobs here.”

“Even if we don't have actual operations in the City of Woodstock, all of the farmers that we buy grain from probably come into town to buy groceries, go to the drug store, do different things, source some of their on-farm materials in the city."

Westcott says he would like to see residents of this area fight for distilled spirits makers the same way people living in the Niagara Peninsula fight for wine producers.