could the market withstand another craft brewery. And as far as we could tell, the answer was yes,” Hill points out. “We realized that there were a ton of craft breweries in a lot smaller markets then Parksville-Qualicum Beach. So then it became a lot more of a serious conversation saying hey, if we don’t do this, someone else is going to.” The venture was purely business. Aside from enjoying the odd craft beer themselves, the cousins had no previous brewing experience. Hill explains, “No, we certainly had a little bit of home-brewing experience. And we certain- ly love to drink a lot of the craft brews. But no, we have a lot of hospitality experience, so that certainly plays into what we do. But we don’t have much in the way of a manu- facturing background. So there was a steep learning curve for us. And we knew right out of the gate that if we were going to do this thing right, we were going have to look for somebody to run the back-end of things and to be our head brewer at our facility.” “Could the market withstand another craft brewery? And as far as we could tell, the answer was yes” Enter David Woodward, a renown and experienced brewer who just happened to be entertaining a career move, should the right deal come along. Hill explains, “It was just one of those things where I think we were lucky enough to have a lot of stars line up. Once we got a little further along into building the business, it was through my cousin Dan’s wife’s yoga studio that the second cousin of the legendary David Woodward went to and frequented. So we got in contact with him through this odd connection.” As mentioned, Woodward was open to conversations about change. “For him, I think it was a bit of a calling home. He was actually born and raised in Parksville- Qualicum Beach. We reached out to him and he was certainly curious. And it quickly snowballed into something a lot more serious, where we were able to bring him on as a partner in the
Craft Beer Bottle Line
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so long to get here and how can we help? How can we make it happen in this market?”
The conversation led to some marketplace research with a view toward understanding why there was seemingly a gap in the booming craft beer industry in Parksville. While the cousins couldn’t come up with a definitive answer, their research revealed that Parksville-Qualicum Beach was the largest market left in British Columbia without a craft brewery. That was enough rationale for them.
“We started to look at how saturated the market was and
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2018
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