Labatt was Brick's nemesis

The Labatt Brewing Company was originally a small, Canadian brewery, but that was a long time ago, over a century ago. Founded in 1847, seven  years later John Kinder Labatt's partner retired. Soon, Labatt had taken complete control of the operation.

When John Labatt Sr. died in 1866, his son took over. Under his guidance, the Labatt brewery became the largest brewery in Canada. It was the little brewery that could. Labatt Blue, a lager, was the most popular Canadian brew in the country and Labatt was the biggest brewery.

Then in 1995, Interbrew bought the company. A bigger fish devouring a smaller fish. But the business world food chain tends to grow as bigger and bigger fish, attracted by the action, circle their prey. In 2004, Interbrew merged with the Brazilian brewery giant AmBev to form InBev. In 2004, Interbrew merged with Brazilian brewer AmBev to form InBev. 

But the mergers, acquisitions and the like continued. In 2008, InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch. Today, Labatt is just a small part of the massive Anheuser-Busch InBev beverage company with its head office in Leuven, Belgium. AB InBev took control of SABMiller in 2015. 

The world's biggest brewery became even bigger. Today it bottles some 630 different brews in 150 countries around the world.

I wonder how many jobs have been lost as relatively small, local brewers were taken over by an efficient, global beverage maker.

Brick Brewery: a remarkable experiment

When the Brick Brewing Company Ltd. opened in 1984 it was a decision steeped in luck. Shortly after opening, the large breweries in Ontario locked out their unionized workers. This action left Brick as one of the few brewers still open for business in southwestern Ontario. It sold out its stock of fresh brewed beer in under an hour.

Brick took its name from its owner, Jim Brickman, a man with a dream. He was going to operate a successful micro-brewery. To this end, he imported his hops from Germany and age his lager for the maximum time legally permitted in Ontario. He used no preservatives.

In that first year, Brick Brewing produced 110,000 24-bottle cases. At its peak, I believe it produced something in the order of 5 million 24-bottle cases. Brick brewed good lager, winning gold medals at international quality competitions in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Luxembourg. And yet, Brick never gave the big boys a run for their money. 

Today the Brick Brewery has been evolved into Waterloo Brewing and is Ontario largest Canadian-owed brewery. Note the limiter, "Canadian-owned." Waterloo Brewing, like Brick before it, is known for producing a quality product.

Garage Sale are Popular and Profitable

 

I hate garage sales, especially ones held in my driveway by my wife. The stuff on display, stuff we no longer want, is embarrassing to see on display for the world to see. Oddly, if the stuff on display is good, worth having, it will as often as not go unpurchased.

My wife sold a 1950s portable record player that no longer worked. It sold and sold quickly. Two fine, antique depression-era chair with a steam-pressed designs were ignored. An old, glass lamp shade sold despite being slightly damaged. Yet, a brand-new, stainless steel fish poacher found no interest. None. It has been returned to our basement.

My wife earned hundreds of dollars from her weekend sale. My granddaughters sold homemade biscotti and earned in the three digits as well. A couple of neighbours also held garage sales and also did very nicely.

At times the street was packed with cars as passing folk followed the garage-sale signs posted about the neighbourhood and stopped to see if they could find a bargain or two.

I was surprised by the stuff people bought and by the stuff people didn't buy. I was surprised that despite COVID-19 cute little girls can sell oodles of cookies, biscotti and small cups of lemonade. And I was surprised that everyone wore a mask. The garage sale was outside and folk were practising social distancing. Yet, everyone still wore a mask and thanked the little girls, who were also wearing masks, for using tongs to server the treats.

Which four are fleeing the park?

 

The four strollers on the left are not actually strolling. In truth, they are fleeing the park after being approached by a number of babbling, ill-dressed, very grungy looking young men. Their words were so hard to understand it was not even clear why they were approached. They assumed that they were looking for a handout but they left empty handed after intimidating the four with just their approach.

Glass towers are popular everywhere

The glass tower carrying the name of London developer Old Oak is considered one of London's nicest looking new buildings. It is also one of the first high-rises built in the downtown core. The Old Oak building still looks striking today. It has aged nicely.

Royal Bank: 9th largest in the world

 

Canada's Royal Bank is larger than I knew. Retirees in Canada often have some Royal Bank stock in their portfolios. Why? Solid dividend income that can be trusted through good times and bad. In fact, all five of Canada's top banks have impeccable reputations when it comes to delivering on promised dividends.

Today in London, the Royal Bank logo marks the top of Talbot Centre in the city core. One might think that such a huge bank would own the building in which it conducts its business in London but it doesn't. Canada's largest bank, the 9th largest in the world, rents its downtown location and shares the building with other businesses and at least one other Canadian bank.

It's clear the Royal Bank didn't ascend to the summit of Canadian banking by wasting money on showy buildings and addresses when there are less costly alternative.

It's a basilica and not just a cathedral

 

Many Londoners know the large downtown Roman Catholic Church as simply St. Peter's Cathedral. Truth be known, the gothic revival style cathedral was declared a minor basilica in 1961 by Pope John XXIII. This is quite the honour as there may be only 25 minor basilicas in all of Canada.