2007-02-02

Lakeport Takeover Worries Employees

'Is there any reason that our major competitor (Labatt Breweries) should let us survive?'
By Robert Sorrell
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 2, 2007)
This is the end ...

The words were immortalized in a song by The Doors vocalist Jim Morrison. But today they became ever more real for me and about 250 other Lakeport Brewery workers whose lives have become part of my own -- and one of this community's success stories over the past number of years.

We first learned of the news yesterday morning, the first day of February, at 3 a.m., just 40 minutes after many of us out in the plant had heard Teresa Cascioli, our CEO and fiscal saviour for the past seven years, bidding a very informal goodnight over the plant radio to the plant engineer, who would then lock and re-arm the office doors behind Cascioli as she left the building.

It would be news that would affect all of the lives of those who worked at Lakeport, many under multiple ownerships and names and many who had signed on at various stages of the company's revival.

Perhaps it was most jarring that we learned first about it from the media crews who descended upon our company's property to extract the precious first reactions from those inside who had yet to receive any inkling of what had been set in play.

The news was that Canada's largest brewer -- and Lakeport's arch-nemesis for the past number of years -- had in place an agreement to purchase Lakeport, which had become an intractable economic thorn in its side in turning the Ontario beer market on its ear with a policy of offering its product at the lowest legal price.

The possibility of such a takeover had been the topic of random gossip ever since Lakeport had gone public, but somehow the prevailing sentiment had been that the sense of purpose and pride that our up-from-the-bootstraps struggle had instilled would keep those in charge from taking the easy and lucrative way out.

The story of Lakeport is a very well publicized success story within not only Hamilton's but Ontario's business community. Teresa Cascioli and her partner had bought a struggling Hamilton brewing company with the intent of capitalizing upon its rights as a liquor beverage co-packer.

It was shortly afterwards that they realized the benefits of producing their own products. (I was there when they announced to a massed employee group that they had "made a mistake" in deciding that we were finished as a brewery.)

Thus was born the concept of "24 for 24"; a concept destined to become a benchmark in the Ontario beer market as the lowest legal price for a case of 24 beers.

Over the past year, we in the company have seen an almost exponential growth in not only our market share but in the company's financial dedication and abilities.

We developed production requirements that strained established hiring rules and necessitated union compromises.

During summer months, the Lakeport market share became almost daily reports out on the floor.

Our increase in can sales forced a total rededication for that product and precipitated gigantic expansions that could be seen from outside the plant -- and that were heralded in media releases.

Many of those who work at Lakeport today in production and management have come out of the consolidations of Ontario's brewing industry.

Their experience has helped Lakeport grow from being a local brewer and then a North American branch plant to being the No. 3 brewer in Ontario and a new segment leader.

Those who value the option of an economical case of beer in Ontario have no one else to thank and might remember us fondly if it disappears.

So the news today can come to those of us at Lakeport as jarring. We rode the roller-coaster of bankruptcy to primacy on the coattails of a woman who herself had followed the same path, only to now find ourselves amid an unprecedented expansion, thrown upon the perils of an uncertain future.

Those all around me at work are asking the same questions:

"After all we've achieved, is this to be it?"

"Is there any reason that our major competitor should let us survive?"

"After winning the battle, can our reward be to die?"

As I watched Cascioli interviewed on television I heard her clearly state that in regards to the workers' fates the shareholders had to be her first concern, I realized she held out not even the unrealistic optimism espoused in most takeovers -- that there would be no immediate changes due to the acquisition.

So in those few words I heard that the legend of Lakeport would die and while the "little girl who could" pocketed some $40 million for her efforts, those who had helped her make it would once again have to fend for themselves.

Robert Sorrell is a millwright at Lakeport, where he has worked for more than seven years. He lives in Caledonia.

Used with permission from The Hamilton Spectator, www.thespec.com Copyright The Hamilton Spectator. All rights reserved.