MONROE - Contrary to news reports in Canada, Minhas Craft Brewery isn't making any plans to move its operations north of the U.S. border.
Gary Olson, manager of Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe, said such a move would be "crazy."
"Especially, now, since we've flopped over - selling more than half of our product in the United States," he said.
After owners Ravinder and Manjit Minhas bought the Joseph Huber Brewing Company, the second oldest brewery in the United States, and renamed it in 2006, the company started shipping about 85 percent of its product volume to Canada.
"Now, only about 40 percent is going there," said Olson. "A lot more is now being shipped all over the U.S., coast-to-coast," under Minhas brands or third-party packaging.
In articles about proposed changes to province beer taxes in Alberta, at least two Canadian newspapers reported in October that Ravinder Minhas was planning "to gradually move his entire operations to Alberta from Wisconsin."
One newspaper, The Calgary Herald, however, published a variation of Minhas' plan, reporting Minhas had opened a Calgary microbrewery in June and hoped to eventually "produce all of their Alberta-market beer at that location."
Olson believes the later of the two reported plans for Minhas is the more plausible.
That new $5.2 million facility, with 25 full-time employees, was brewing ultra premium craft beers, including Chocolate Bunny Stout, Thumper American IPA, Mystical Jack Traditional Ale and Lazy Mutt Gluten-Free Lager. Orders from California for the gluten-free product were coming in when it opened mid-June, according to Canadian reports.
Olson said the Wisconsin facility couldn't produce the gluten-free beer, because it couldn't keep the production lines separate, a requirement when making allergy-free products.
He added that the prospect of the Calgary brewery increasing its production - or of any Minhas expansion in Canada - for Canadian markets would be a boon for the entire company.
"It's the rail freight to get it up there that is so expensive," Olson said.
Not only is freight cost to the central government warehouse in Edmonton, Alberta, taking a piece of the company profits from Canadian sales, Olson said Minhas also has to pay the Canadian government for its warehouse workers to unload, store, and then re-load the products onto transports to distributors.
Under Alberta's markup, or beer tax, system, retailers pay the province for every liter of beer they buy from breweries. The added tax is generally passed on to the customer.
The bigger the brewery the product is being purchased from, the higher the tax rate is.
Olson said beer taxes in Canada amount to about $100 per "beer barrel" versus less than $20 in the United States.
The primary intent of the imposed tax rates, in place since 2002, is to encourage breweries to set up and produce in Alberta, using its agricultural products and labor.
But the Alberta government is taxing local brews at the same rates as it does those produced outside the province - whether in Canada or the United States, and that, Canadian papers report, has some brewers and politicians irate. They use Minhas as an example, claiming Minhas' Wisconsin-made beers are befitting from a tax loophole, receiving an Alberta tax reduction incentive that is going to prop up an American corporation. Minhas is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.
But Canadian consumers looking for cheap beer are reportedly not complaining about Alberta's current tax scale. They think the Alberta tax system is helping to keep prices low. One newspaper online commenter claimed he was buying Boxer Lager at $30 for a 36 pack in Alberta, and now pays $48.60 for the same amount and product sold in Ontario.
Minhas was quoted in Macleans - a Canadian magazine - as saying "The average price (for beer) in Alberta is lower than anywhere else in Canada. People from B.C. and Saskatchewan make trips to buy their beer in Alberta."
Minhas retails in Alberta for around $1.25 a bottle.
Minhas has reportedly put his Calgary canning operation on hold until the Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk makes a decision on changing the markup.
"It could have a very dramatic hindrance on our business or even take us out of business," Minhas said in the Beacon News. "If they do things that force our prices up, it takes us out of business. That would mean opening the Calgary brewery was a big mistake, investing in Alberta would have been a mistake. That's where our concern is for sure."
Olson said Tuesday that no decision had been made yet on proposed markup changes in Alberta.
Gary Olson, manager of Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe, said such a move would be "crazy."
"Especially, now, since we've flopped over - selling more than half of our product in the United States," he said.
After owners Ravinder and Manjit Minhas bought the Joseph Huber Brewing Company, the second oldest brewery in the United States, and renamed it in 2006, the company started shipping about 85 percent of its product volume to Canada.
"Now, only about 40 percent is going there," said Olson. "A lot more is now being shipped all over the U.S., coast-to-coast," under Minhas brands or third-party packaging.
In articles about proposed changes to province beer taxes in Alberta, at least two Canadian newspapers reported in October that Ravinder Minhas was planning "to gradually move his entire operations to Alberta from Wisconsin."
One newspaper, The Calgary Herald, however, published a variation of Minhas' plan, reporting Minhas had opened a Calgary microbrewery in June and hoped to eventually "produce all of their Alberta-market beer at that location."
Olson believes the later of the two reported plans for Minhas is the more plausible.
That new $5.2 million facility, with 25 full-time employees, was brewing ultra premium craft beers, including Chocolate Bunny Stout, Thumper American IPA, Mystical Jack Traditional Ale and Lazy Mutt Gluten-Free Lager. Orders from California for the gluten-free product were coming in when it opened mid-June, according to Canadian reports.
Olson said the Wisconsin facility couldn't produce the gluten-free beer, because it couldn't keep the production lines separate, a requirement when making allergy-free products.
He added that the prospect of the Calgary brewery increasing its production - or of any Minhas expansion in Canada - for Canadian markets would be a boon for the entire company.
"It's the rail freight to get it up there that is so expensive," Olson said.
Not only is freight cost to the central government warehouse in Edmonton, Alberta, taking a piece of the company profits from Canadian sales, Olson said Minhas also has to pay the Canadian government for its warehouse workers to unload, store, and then re-load the products onto transports to distributors.
Under Alberta's markup, or beer tax, system, retailers pay the province for every liter of beer they buy from breweries. The added tax is generally passed on to the customer.
The bigger the brewery the product is being purchased from, the higher the tax rate is.
Olson said beer taxes in Canada amount to about $100 per "beer barrel" versus less than $20 in the United States.
The primary intent of the imposed tax rates, in place since 2002, is to encourage breweries to set up and produce in Alberta, using its agricultural products and labor.
But the Alberta government is taxing local brews at the same rates as it does those produced outside the province - whether in Canada or the United States, and that, Canadian papers report, has some brewers and politicians irate. They use Minhas as an example, claiming Minhas' Wisconsin-made beers are befitting from a tax loophole, receiving an Alberta tax reduction incentive that is going to prop up an American corporation. Minhas is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.
But Canadian consumers looking for cheap beer are reportedly not complaining about Alberta's current tax scale. They think the Alberta tax system is helping to keep prices low. One newspaper online commenter claimed he was buying Boxer Lager at $30 for a 36 pack in Alberta, and now pays $48.60 for the same amount and product sold in Ontario.
Minhas was quoted in Macleans - a Canadian magazine - as saying "The average price (for beer) in Alberta is lower than anywhere else in Canada. People from B.C. and Saskatchewan make trips to buy their beer in Alberta."
Minhas retails in Alberta for around $1.25 a bottle.
Minhas has reportedly put his Calgary canning operation on hold until the Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk makes a decision on changing the markup.
"It could have a very dramatic hindrance on our business or even take us out of business," Minhas said in the Beacon News. "If they do things that force our prices up, it takes us out of business. That would mean opening the Calgary brewery was a big mistake, investing in Alberta would have been a mistake. That's where our concern is for sure."
Olson said Tuesday that no decision had been made yet on proposed markup changes in Alberta.