Northern boss betters brewery's job forecast: seeking loans from government, Sharpe promises dozens of additional jobs, for a total of 320 in the two cities.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: NEWS - Northern Breweries Limited

Sault Ste. Marie, Greater Sudbury- Northern Breweries is staking a new claim to recapture the Northern Ontario beer market.

After years of almost driving consumers away, the 129-year-old regional brewer launched a new look and product line in June with a massive advertising blitz and the promise of more than 300 jobs next year.

Featuring a reformulated line-up of premium lager products, the company, with plants in Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, is taking aim at wrestling their share of the competitive Ontario beer market away from the two national brands, Molson and Labatt's.

Under the slogan, 'Our Beer is Back,' new president and CEO Bill Sharpe unveiled the new logo--a stylized compass rose--at press conferences in the Sault and Sudbury, while updating reporters and politicians on the progress of the near-dormant company that he officially took over Dec. 1.

Northern has begun an extensive advertising campaign with radio spots, TV promos and print ads across the North and as far south as Barrie.

University and college students have been recruited to conduct in-store sampling events in Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), stores across the region this summer.

"We intend to take this company and grow it back to its proud heritage that it was many years ago," says Sharpe. He boasts a healthy track record of reviving shuttered breweries and putting them back into production, including Hamilton's Lakeport Brewery.

But Sharpe admits Northern Breweries was in sadder financial shape than he first believed. That has set back his schedule to gut and modernize the aging Sudbury plant by about eight weeks.

It will push back the resumption of beer production in the Nickel City by three to four months to either late March or April 2006.

Sharpe says the $20 million in upgrades are necessary to compete with the national brewers in their costings.

"If you're going to compete against the big breweries, you've got to put your product into the package and have it ready to go, equal to their pricing."

He told reporters in Sudbury the almost-bankrupt company was practically a virtual start-up with $5 million to $6 million in monies owed that had to be paid off or written off with the help of municipal governments in the Sault and Sudbury.

320 jobs between two cities

Despite the delays, he is promising more jobs than originally proposed, thanks in large part to potential international co-packing and licensing agreements.

As a condition of tax relief, Sharpe...