Beer Store's days are numbered, experts say

Retailer says it has plan to adapt and thrive’ as province opens up market

- JOSH RUBIN

The Beer Store might not make it to its 100th birthday.

With the announcement last week by Premier Doug Ford that beer, wine, cider and seltzers will be coming to corner stores across Ontario by September and big box stores by Halloween, the once-mighty beer juggernaut is on the verge of disappearing from the retail scene, experts say.

With 8,500 more places for Ontarians to buy their beer, there’s just not much need for the Beer Store, said beer author and consultant Stephen Beaumont. “I don’t think there’s any question that their days as a retail entity are numbered. And that number’s pretty small,” said Beaumont. “It’s quite conceivable we could see the end of the Beer Store as a retail entity by 2026.”

The Beer Store said it’s planning to expand its distribution network to service corner stores that will soon be able to sell beer in Ontario.

The Beer Store began life as a cooperative venture between local breweries in 1927, the same year Prohibition ended in Ontario. Today, it’s owned by Molson Coors, Labatt, who each control roughly 49 per cent, and Sleeman, which controls the remainder. At its peak, it sold 90 per cent of the beer consumed in Ontario.

As part of an agreement with the Beer Store and its owners, the provincial government is paying $225 million to get an early jump on wide-open alcohol retailing that would otherwise have had to wait until the beginning of 2026, after the official end of the master framework agreement.