Bradford residents and beer advocates Michael La Riviere and Jeff Bellamy, as well as Drew Macklin and Derek Munroe (from Cobourg, ON) recently launched a new exclusive beer club ‘The Ontario Brewery Club’ (OBC) and share they already have over 200 new members.
The club gives members the opportunity to have unique, craft beers delivered right to their door every month to try new selections while supporting smaller local breweries.
“We offer consumers the ability to subscribe to an exclusive beer club where each month they get a shipment from a new brewery directly to their door,” explains La Riviere, one of the OBC co-founders and also the owner of R Design Media in Bradford. “[Members] are able to get beers from great local breweries that are normally harder to find in the LCBO/Beer Store due to shelf space competition. The breweries benefit by gaining an additional sales channel and exposure to a crowd that isn’t local to the brewery and who may not have known they previously existed.”
La Riviere says OBC is less expensive than other beer club subscriptions and only feature Ontario-made craft beers from a partnership with 15 local breweries (and growing). Current brewery partnerships include Old Dog Brewing Co., New Ontario Brewing Co., South River Brewing Co., Lake of the Woods Brewing Co., Riverhead Brewing Co., Sons of Kent, Big Rock, Maclean’s Ales Inc., Brock Street, Barley Days Brewery, William Street Beer Co., Refined Fool, Boshkung Brewing Co., and 4 Degrees.
“The soft opening has been great so far," he says. “[We’d] like to keep the momentum going!”
The club boasts their ‘direct-to-door’ shipping model which offers clients a much more efficient and direct method of delivery, as opposed to the usual ‘beer-of-the-month’ clubs who ship their products to a distribution centre before being shipped out again to the subscribers.
“You usually have to buy six or 12 of a certain beer,” explains La Riviere. “Shipping out six different beers each month allows the club members to get a true taste of what each brewery has to offer.”
La Riviere shares Macklin was the ‘brainchild’ behind the idea as he is the co-owner of William St. Brewery in Cobourg.
“Knowing how hard it can be for some breweries to get into the LCBO and Beer Store, he always dreamed of starting his own beer club to help the smaller breweries reach consumers,” he expresses.
The four men share they knew one another prior to the launch from previous successful marketing projects and through friendship.
"Needing someone with a strong marketing background, Drew and Derek approached Jeff to see if he was interested in launching the OBC,” says La Riviere. “Being a craft beer enthusiast myself, Jeff proposed bringing me on board as a founding member to provide web development and marketing support – [it] was a perfect fit all around.”
He adds, “Our future goals are to continue growing our memberships in Ontario while… expanding into other provinces in the near future where we can help breweries across Canada reach new customers.”
To learn more about The Ontario Brewery Club or to sign up, visit: www.ontariobreweryclub.ca
