How Covid-19 Has Made Nova Scotia Beer Drinkers Think Local
HALIFAX—As the Covid-19 pandemic stretches on, Nova Scotia beer drinkers are increasingly leaving behind big beer brands in favour of brews from local producers.
The Craft Brewers Association of Nova Scotia represents most of the 70 craft breweries in the province. Its newly released annual report shows that craft beer now represents about 20 percent of Nova Scotia’s beer market.
Right now, the industry employs about 1,150 workers that represent roughly $50,000,000 in payroll salaries and benefits.
And craft beer sales in the province are growing even as overall beer sales stay flat, or in some cases shrink.
Look at the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation’s beer sales and you’ll see huge gains in the craft beer sector that have come mostly at the expense of larger brands.
According to the NSLC’s Beverley Ware, between 2017 and 2021 the number of local beers available at the NSLC increased 185 percent, from 97 to 277. During its last fiscal year, the NSLC’s craft beer sales grew 10.8 percent, to $22.3-million.
In fact, craft beer sales through the NSLC are growing even as beer sales, in general, slump.
The last quarter of financial results from the Crown corporation shows local beer sales up nearly 23 percent, to $7.7-million. Meanwhile, overall beer sales were down by two percent.
Ware argues part of that success stems from NSCL initiatives like free business coaching for local producers, giving more shelf space to craft beer, and providing funding to CBANS.
Debbi MacDonald, the executive director of CBANS, says the craft beer industry’s success has more to do with the passion and innovation of the brewers themselves.
MacDonald says the Covid-19 pandemic presented craft brewers with the kinds of challenges that can sink many businesses. However, she says many have turned those challenges into opportunities.
“You’re looking at small businesses, and people who own their business and work in their business, and they’re very passionate about what they do. So, in order to survive, when [they were thrown] a curveball, they had to adjust,” she told Huddle in a recent interview.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a real push to buy local. MacDonald says craft brewers were able to capitalize on that consumer desire and have kept the momentum going by pivoting their business models.
Brewers built patios and decks in the summer to capture customers who couldn’t or wouldn’t drink inside. Others overhauled their businesses strategies and leaned heavily into deliveries and take-out.
MacDonald says the fact that many craft brewers were small allowed them to stay nimble and meet customers’ needs as they changed.
That, she argues, created the infrastructure for craft beer to succeed that has continued driving sales in places like the NSLC.
“There were so many different challenges that they have come across, yet they just went with the flow and adjusted and swerved right when they had to and swerved left when they had to do that,” MacDonald adds.
Trevor Nichols is the associate editor of Huddle, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].