 Northern Ale beer label | |
| Founded | 1907 |
|---|---|
| Defunct | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Sudbury, Ontario, Canada |
| Owner | J.J. Doran (1907-?) Canadian Breweries (1971-77) employee-owned cooperative (1977-2004) Leo Schotte (2004-06) |
Northern Breweries was a Canadian brewery, with facilities in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in operation from 1907 until 2006.
The company was founded in 1907 by three families, the Doran family, the Mackey family and the Fee family. The organizer and operating head of the company was J.J. Doran. Doran, together with co-founders J.J. Mackey and Richard Fee expanded operations throughout Northern Ontario.
Construction and commencement of its primary facility began in Sudbury as Sudbury Brewing and Malting Co. in 1907. It began to expand in 1911, with the purchase of the Soo Falls Brewing Co. in Sault Ste. Marie, and again in 1913 with the acquisition of Kakabeka Falls Brewing Co. in Fort William.
In 1919, the company established its Doran's Brewery division in Timmins, and in 1948 it acquired the Port Arthur Beverage Co. in Port Arthur.
All of the individual breweries operated under their original names until 1960. In that year, all of the brewing operations were consolidated under one management, relinquishing their previous names and becoming known as Doran's Northern Breweries.
During its prime, the company's most distinctive product was the "draft ball", draft beer packaged in a large plastic ball instead of a conventional metal beer keg.
On August 31, 1971 the company was purchased by Canadian Breweries, although it continued to operate under the name Doran's Northern Breweries. In July 1977, the Doran's employees purchased the company back from Canadian Breweries, and Northern became the first employee-owned brewing cooperative in North America.
In 1979, the brewery began marketing its beers in Southern Ontario as well.
In 2004, the company was purchased by an investment group led by Leo Schotte. Schotte hired a veteran of the brewery business in Canada, William Sharpe, as president. In 2005, the company announced a major rebranding effort, retiring many of its old products in favour of more modern brews and brand identities.
In 2006 questions were raised at Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie city councils about tax benefits extended to Northern Breweries and whether the brewery was meeting the conditions of the agreement. One of the conditions was increased hiring at the breweries and there was no evidence that this had taken place. In June 2006, Sharpe appeared before Sault Ste. Marie city council and cited poor sales and lack of investor interest as reasons for the downturn in the company's fortunes. By 2006, the brewery was $7 million in debt and had ceased production at the Sudbury facility. Sharpe left the company in July 2006, and by December the company was defunct. [1]
Northern Breweries products are no longer being manufactured. A tax sale of its assets took place in 2009. [2]
The company's facility in Sudbury was acquired in 2010 by Sookram Bus Lines, a local tour and charter bus operator, [3] but owner Druve Sookram put the building back up for sale in 2013 after determining that his plans for the building were not financially feasible. [4] In June 2014, real estate developer Greg Oldenburg acquired the Sudbury facility, announcing plans to convert the building into a loft condominium development. [5] In November 2016, Oldenburg received rezoning approval from the city's planning department to proceed with his conversion plans. [6]
The facility in Sault Ste. Marie was acquired by Renaissance Place Corporation in 2011, with a mixed condominium and retail project planned for the site, [7] but was damaged by arson in 2013 [8] and has been listed for resale after falling into tax arrears. [8]
New microbrewery companies have been established in both cities since Northern Breweries' demise, with Stack Brewing launched in Sudbury in 2013, [9] OutSpoken Brewing launched in Sault Ste. Marie in 2014 [10] and Northern Superior Brewing launched in Sault Ste. Marie in 2015. [11]
Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Province of the Canadian Shield, a vast rocky plateau located mainly north of Lake Huron, the French River, Lake Nipissing, and the Mattawa River. The statistical region extends south of the Mattawa River to include all of the District of Nipissing. The southern section of this district lies on part of the Grenville Geological Province of the Shield which occupies the transitional area between Northern and Southern Ontario. The extended federal and provincial quasi-administrative regions of Northern Ontario have their own boundaries even further south in the transitional area that vary according to their respective government policies and requirements. Ontario government departments and agencies such as the Growth Plan for Northern Ontario and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation define Northern Ontario as all areas north of, and including, the districts of Parry Sound and Nipissing for political purposes, and the federal but not the provincial government also includes the district of Muskoka.
Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer, than larger "macro" breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, new flavours, and varied brewing techniques.
CTV Northern Ontario, formerly known as MCTV, is a system of four television stations in Northern Ontario, Canada, owned and operated by the CTV Television Network, a division of Bell Media.
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The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario, Canada, that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. It used to have a branch line to Wawa. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads.
Beer was introduced to Canada by European settlers in the seventeenth century. The first commercial brewery was La Brasseries du Roy started by New France Intendant Jean Talon, in Québec City in 1668. Many commercial brewers thrived until prohibition in Canada. The provincial and federal governments' attempt to eliminate "intoxicating" beverages led to the closing of nearly three quarters of breweries between 1878 and 1928. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that a significant number of new breweries opened up. The Canadian beer industry now plays an important role in Canadian identity, although globalization of the brewing industry has seen the major players in Canada acquired by or merged with foreign companies, notably its three largest beer producers: Labatt, Molson and Sleeman. The result is that Moosehead, with an estimated 3.8 percent share of the domestic market in 2016, has become the largest fully Canadian-owned brewer.
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St. Marys Paper Ltd. was a manufacturer of pulp and paper, with its mill located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. The mill was situated on the St. Marys River waterfront, just east of Algoma Steel.
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Ontario Northland Motor Coach Services is an intercity bus service operated by the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a Crown agency of the government of Ontario, Canada. Ontario Northland Motor Coach Services operates passenger and parcel transportation service in northern Ontario, with additional routes connecting northern Ontario to the Greater Toronto Area, Winnipeg, and Ottawa.
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Sault Ste. Marie is a city in Ontario, Canada. The third-largest city in Northern Ontario after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, it is located on the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. To the southwest, across the river, is the United States and the Michigan city of the same name. The two cities are joined by the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side to Huron Street on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary's Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.