The story
Founded by John Kinder Labatt in 1847.1
Labatt Breweries was founded by John Kinder Labatt in 1847 in London, Canada West (now Ontario). Kinder had immigrated to Canada from Ireland in the 1830s and initially established himself as a farmer near London. In 1847, he invested in a brewery with a partner, Samuel Eccles, launching "Labatt and Eccles". When Eccles retired in 1854, Labatt acquired his interest and renamed the firm the "London Brewery". He was assisted by his sons Ephraim, Robert and John.
When John Kinder Labatt died in 1866, his son John assumed control of the company. Under his supervision, it grew to be the largest brewery in Canada. Following his death in 1915, the company was controlled by a trust operated by his nine children, although his sons John Sackville Labatt and Hugh Francis Labatt assumed managerial control.
In 1901, Prohibition in Canada began through provincial legislation in Prince Edward Island. In 1916, prohibition was instituted in Ontario as well, affecting all 64 breweries in the province. Although some provinces totally banned alcohol manufacture, some permitted production for export to the United States. Labatt survived by producing full strength beer for export south of the border and by introducing two "temperance ales" with less than two per cent alcohol for sale in Ontario. However, the Canadian beer industry suffered a second blow when Prohibition in the United States began in 1919. When Prohibition was repealed in Ontario in 1926, just 15 breweries remained, and only Labatt retained its original management. This resulted in a strengthened industry position. In 1945, Labatt became a publicly traded company with the issuance of 900,000 shares.
John and Hugh Labatt, grandsons of founder John K. Labatt, launched Labatt 50 in 1950 to commemorate 50 years of partnership. The first light ale introduced in Canada, Labatt 50 was Canada's best-selling beer until 1979.
By the 1960s, both John S. Labatt and Hugh Labatt were deceased, and John Moore was Labatt's president, with the Labatt family holding a controlling interest. In 1964, the Schlitz brewing company of the US purchased majority control of Labatt in a friendly takeover. Their ownership of Labatt was short-lived, as Labatt's holdings in the United States along with those of Schlitz constituted an anti-trust position in California. By 1966, Schlitz sold its interest to a group led by Moore, putting it back under Canadian ownership.
In 1951, Labatt launched its Pilsener Lager; when it was introduced in Manitoba, the beer was nicknamed "Blue" for the colour of its label and the company's support of Winnipeg's Canadian Football League (CFL) franchise, the Blue Bombers. The brew-master at the time was Robert Frank Lewarne (b. 1921 Toronto; R. F. Lewarne also headed the team that produced the famous Labatt 50, mainly for the Quebec market). The new name allowed Labatt to play to their Western base while sidestepping the politics of “red and white” which was prominent and fueled by “British” versus “Canadian” nationalism in the 1960s. The nickname "Blue" stuck and in 1979, Labatt Blue claimed the top spot in the Canadian beer market. It lost this status in the late eighties to Molson Canadian, but over the next decade, it periodically regained the top spot as consumer preferences fluctuated. In 2004, Budweiser took the top spot, pushing Blue to third for the first time in twenty-five years. However, since Labatt has brewed Budweiser (and other Anheuser-Busch products) in Canada under licence since the 1980s, Labatt likely did not suffer from this shift. Moreover, Labatt Blue remains the best selling Canadian beer in the world, based upon worldwide sales.
Labatt was also the majority owner of the Toronto Blue Jays from their inception in 1976 until 1995, when Interbrew purchased Labatt. In 2000, Rogers Communications purchased an 80% stake in the team and Interbrew retained the other 20%; Rogers later acquired full ownership of the team.
Labatt's innovations include the introduction of the first twist-off cap on a refillable bottle in 1984. In 1989, Labatt had the opportunity to hire Canadian model Pamela Anderson as a Labatt's Blue Zone Girl after she was picked out of the crowd by a TV camera man at a BC Lions football game wearing a Blue Zone crop-top. Photographer and boyfriend Dann Ilicic produced the Blue Zone Girl poster on his own after Labatt's refused to have anything to do with it. Later, Labatt's did buy 1000 posters to deal with consumer demand.
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In 1995, Labatt was acquired by the large Belgian multinational brewer Interbrew (now InBev), the world market leader. Labatt is part-owner of Brewers Retail Inc., operator of The Beer Store retail chain, which—protected by legislation—has over 90% market share of Ontario off-premises beer sales.
The company also operated its broadcasting assets through Labatt Communications, namely The Sports Network and Discovery Channel. Labbatt Communications was spun out from Labbatt to form NetStar Communications in 1995 which was owned by multiple Canadian investors and ESPN Inc.; NetStar would later be acquired outright by CTV Inc. (formerly Baton Broadcasting) in 2000, which was then sold to BCE Inc. to form Bell Globemedia, who would later renamed to CTVglobemedia and now Bell Media.
In early 2007, Labatt also acquired Lakeport Brewing Company of Hamilton, Ontario., Two years later, in 2009, the company sold Labatt USA, including the American rights to its core Labatt products (such as Blue, Blue Light, and Labatt 50) to FIFCO USA, and agreed to brew those brands on Labatt USA's behalf until 2012. This sale was mandated by the U.S. Department of Justice for competitive reasons following InBev's merger with Anheuser-Busch, since Budweiser and Labatt Blue were both among the top brands in upstate New York, despite the latter having less than 1% market share in the U.S. overall.
The sale did not include U.S. rights to Labatt products not carrying the "Labatt" label, such as Kokanee or Alexander Keith's, which are now distributed in the U.S. by Anheuser-Busch. Moreover, the underlying intellectual property (such as the Labatt trademarks) remains the property of the Canadian firm. Finally, the sale did not affect Labatt's Canadian operations in any way, however Anheuser-Busch InBev retains full control of the Labatt brand portfolio within Canada.
In 2020, Labatt acquired Canadian distiller Goodridge & Williams, a company known for creating Nütrl Vodka Soda and other ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktails.
From Wikipedia’s article on Labatt Brewing Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5