“We’ve got 320 employees working here in Saint John, brewing and packaging ales and lager beer for both the domestic and export markets,” Auger told Canadian Packaging during a recent interview.
“In addition to brewing and packaging the Moosehead-branded company brands, we also offer contract brewing and packaging services for some well-known international brewery customers,” he adds.
“We sell our brands throughout Canada, in all 50 of the U.S. states, and in approximately 15 other countries around the world,” says Auger naming off an impressive product portfolio comprising brands such as Alpine, Alpine Light, Alpine Summit, Alpine Max, Moosehead Lager, Moosehead Light, Moosehead Light Lime, Moosehead Premium Dry, Clancy Amber Ale, Moosehead Dry Ice, Cold Filtered Light, Moosehead Pale Ale, James Ready 5.5, James Ready Light 4.0, and the recently-launched bestselling premium light lager called Cracked Canoe.
“About 50 per cent of Moosehead’s total production, including contract work, is shipped outside the country,” Auger relates, estimating that the bulk of the company’s contract output is exported to customers in the U.S. markets.
Packaging its beer brands in industry-standard 341-ml glass bottles and 355-ml non-refillable bottles supplied by Owens-Illinois Inc., as well as in 355-ml aluminum cans and 501-ml keg-shaped stainless-steel containers—purchased from Ball Packaging Products Canada and Crown Metal Packaging Canada respectively—the Saint John brewery houses two high-speed bottling lines, a high-speed canning line, and one fully-automated kegging line, Auger reveals.
“Also, our Moosehead lager and our recently launched Cracked Canoe beers now use the sleek 355-ml cans for the Ontario markets,” says Auger, adding that most of the Moosehead brands retail in six-, eight-, 12-, 16- and 24-pack formats for both bottles and cans.
Photo courtesy of Lagrotta Packaging Group Inc.
But while recent history has been relatively kind to the Saint John brewery, compared to the devastating setbacks endured in the company’s previous incarnation in Halifax, it would be a stretch to say that the plant doesn’t have its share of anxious moments now and then.
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