Saturated Quebec beer market: is regionalization the key?

On the sidelines of the third Quebec Micro Beer Week, brewers from Gaspésie and Bas-Saint-Laurent must adapt to a Quebec market which, according to them, is reaching saturation. Some are now banking on local and tourist customers instead of retailers.

After experiencing excitement during the pandemic, the brewing market is now approaching its saturation point, believes Émile Béland Fournier, co-owner of L’Octant, in Rimouski.

We stretched the elastic a little too quickly. During the pandemic, I feel like there was an overestimation of what the market could takehe said on the microphone of the show Even frequency.

For good reason, the number of brewing companies jumped by 12% in 2019 as well as in 2020, according to data from the Association of Microbrasseries of Quebec. However, for two years, this same number has stagnated, oscillating between 320 and 330.

Émile Béland Fournier notes that several beer retailers have closed up shop over the past two years. It hurt several microbreweries because money disappeared.

A reading shared by the co-owner of Malbord, Félix Labrecque, in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. We hope that this will stop, because it’s a shame for all these people, who had beautiful shops.

Added to this is the rising cost of living, he says on the show At heart of the world. The wallet has shrunk, purchasing power has decreased a little. People are paying more and more attention [au prix] products they will buy. It’s not always easy for small businesses that have products that cost more to manufacture.

To adjust to a provincial market that is seeking its balance, wouldn’t one of the solutions be to focus on a local and tourist clientele?

Yes, according to Félix Labrecque. He himself is currently taking steps to obtain a bar license again for his establishment after having canceled it a few years ago.

I think that in every small village there will always be room for a nice gathering place where you can have a beer.

This is particularly the case in Pohénégamook, where Le Secret des Dieux set up in a former monastery eight years ago to sell the fruit of its brews. The microbrewery also sells 80% of its 75,000 liters of beer brewed annually to its pub.

We rely a lot on our advertising and on tourist customersexplains co-owner, Daniel Blier. In Pohénégamook, it’s quite intense in summer. We have ten great weeks.

New or limited beers are also popular with certain consumers, he observes. We do a lot of collaborative beers with other breweries. We also focused on the niche of special beers for events and businesses and it works very well.

Although the Quebec market has reached a plateau with some 330 microbreweries – a plateau which is also a peak – each of the 17 regions of Quebec can boast of having one and benefiting from it, notes the general director of the ‘Association of microbreweries of Quebec, Marie-Ève ​​Mira at the microphone of Hello the Side.

000inhabitants”,”text”:”And it should be noted, we have a third of these microbreweries which are in small municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants”}}”>And, it should be noted, we have a third of these microbreweries which are in small municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants.she adds.

These signs suggest that the Quebec beer market is set to become regionalized.