By John Allaire I ’ve been in the brewing industry for about 25 years,” Mason explains. “You can get a little sick of working for someone else all your life.” It’s the battle-cry of just about every newly-minted entre- preneur. Work to put money into your own pocket, not someone else’s. So Mason embarked upon a little research and discovered that there was really only one Canadian keg supplier, and a whole whack of new ‘craft’ customers entering the market every day. The lightbulb clicked on.
“I thought the other distributor could use some competition. So I started up, and about two years into it, the other company —my competitor — folded. And I kind of have the marketplace to myself now.” Inherent in most business success stories is an element to fortuitous timing. Mason’s company suddenly found themselves in a rapid- ly-growing industry with virtually no competition in Canada. “Lucky, I guess. But within four-and- a-half short years, we are the largest keg supplier in Canada, supplying breweries as large as Moosehead and Beau’s, right down to the little guy who’s brewing in his garage at home.”
Mason was quick to point out that providing his products and services to the ‘little guy’ makes good business sense because, in this expanding ‘craft’ market, anyone could be tomor- row’s ‘big guy.’ “We make a point of not having minimum orders. And we really go to lengths to help out the
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OCTOBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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