Canadian Breweries History: Quidi Vidi Brewing Company Ltd.
Founded by David Rees and David Fong, the brewery competes in a market which has been dominated by national and international giants.
There are a number of things that set this local brewery apart from the national breweries. Unlike the nationals, the design and location of the plant are deeply connected to the local roots of its founders. The newly reconstructed building, formerly the Cabot Seafood's Plant, sits surrounded by granite cliffs at the mouth of the harbor in Quidi Vidi Village. With its green spruce clapboard and white trim, it looks comfortably at home within the rustic surroundings of the village. This ultra-modern facility houses a state-of-the-art brewery, a retail store, administrative offices, and reception room.
Prior to start-up in 1996, Dave & Dave (both engineers in the offshore oil industry) had been assessing potential manufacturing opportunities in Newfoundland and Labrador. Their objectives were simple. They wanted to develop an enterprise that was new to the province, but more importantly, one that would create new jobs for the province, rather than simply replace existing ones.
Through their involvement in the offshore, they had traveled extensively throughout North America and had noticed an upsurge in brewing activity across the continent. Not only were breweries on the increase, the beers they were producing were being embraced by a consuming public who had seemingly grown tired of the non-descript beer styles being produced by the larger breweries. Realizing that no such enterprise existed in the province at that time, they commissioned the development of a feasibility study to assess the potential of such an enterprise in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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