“We kind of like being in our own little area doing our own little thing.”
breaking point?
A large part of Red Collar’s success revolves around keeping business as local as possible. David and Lara characterize Kamloops as a city not afraid to drive pick-up trucks and sport cowboy boots and a Stetson. Lara says there is a change happening in the area, but change may come at a slower pace than say Vancouver. “The change is happening and we’re seeing it. Even over the last five years. There are 90,000 people in Kamloops and for the longest time, we were the only family brewing beer here. Now we have four breweries…” There’s a bit of laughter as I realize the Beardsells started up three of them. Nonetheless, their preference remains to remain the pro- verbial big fish in a small pond. Lara, who currently lives in and spends much of her time in Vancouver, points out that trendy businesses, and brewer- ies in particular, can get lost in the big city, by virtue of the sheer volume of competition. “There’s so much cool stuff going on in Vancouver all the time. It can be overwhelming. We kind of like being in our own little area doing our own little thing. And we get to try new beers on people who haven’t ever had a
“We’ve been through two waves of the craft beer movement. First one in the 90s and another one at the turn of the century. That was the big one. That was the one where everyone was \ selling out. I figure we are now into the third iteration of the beer bubble in Canada. And just from what I’ve seen, I think this is going to be the big bubble. This is where people are going to lose a lot of money.” “Operating a brew pub wasn’t ‘beer-directed’ enough for me.” David and Lara point to beer Meccas like Asheville, North Carolina and Portland, Oregon, who are currently closing craft and microbreweries faster than they are opening them. Trends tend to draw in money from investors that aren’t necessarily familiar with the industry’s history. David’s experience and insight hints at a plateau being sur- passed in many cities. “There are going to be some tears,” he opines.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JANUARY 2018
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