TIVERTON, ON – While there’s yet to be an official announcement or confirmed media reports, it appears that the troubled Steelback Brewery has ceased operations.
Rumours began spreading early last week that the Tiverton brewery was preparing to close, and on Friday, the Great Canadian Pubs and Beer blog quoted an anonymous source saying “they closed the doors officially yesterday. The staff were told late day Thursday.” Subsequent attempts to contact the brewery have been met with unanswered calls and full voice mail boxes.
If true, this will mark the second closure for Steelback, as it faced bankruptcy under original owner Frank D’Angelo before being relaunched in May, 2008 under new owner Jonathon Sherman (son of Barry Sherman, founder of pharmaceutical company Apotex and main financier for D’Angelo’s company).
While Sherman oversaw a big change in direction for the brewery, including new packaging and reformulated brands, there was speculation in the industry that the negative legacy left by the D’Angelo version of the company would be difficult to overcome. The biggest evidence of this came last July, when the majority of Steelback’s workforce was laid off due to low sales.
If and when more information comes available, it will be reported here on CBN.
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