Beau’s home-delivery service shut down after anonymous complaint

A home-delivery partnership between Beau's All-Natural Brewery Co. and an Ottawa-based charity, designed to help homeless and at-risk youth by providing them with jobs, was shut down on its first day of operation by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.

The AGCO informed Beau's and the charity, Operation Come Home, that they could not continue the home-delivery service of Beau's beer - named BottleWorks or Buy Your Beau's Online (BYBO) - because of a provincial regulation that states beer cannot be delivered when purchased directly from a microbrewery.

According to Beau's, it was informed by an alcohol inspector that another brewery made the complaint to the AGCO, ultimately leading to the service being stopped. The legislation states, under the Home Delivery Service license, that alcohol intended for home delivery can only be purchased from the LCBO or The Beer Store.

Beau's co-founder Steve Beauchesne said it was unfortunate the license makes no mention of microbreweries or small wineries, despite an increased market presence in recent years. He highlighted the LCBO's status as a crown corporation and noted The Beer Store is a foreign-owned, privately-held corporation run by the parent companies of Molson, Labatt, and Sleeman.

"Stipulating that delivery services can only buy from the LCBO or The Beer Store doesn't seem fair," he stated. "If a delivery service can buy alcohol from a retail store owned by Molson and Labatt's, which is what The Beer Store is, then why not from our retail store? Our customers should be able to make that choice."

The AGCO said the service can continue to operate, as long as the beer is purchased from the LCBO or The Beer Store. However, the brewery contends that only a small selection of its products is available at the LCBO.

Beauchesne said he believes the wording in the Home Delivery License needs updating and, in the meantime, he's asked the help of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty - via Glengarry-Prescott-Russell MPP Grant Crack - in re-examining the situation.

"In terms of process and timelines, there's not much in concrete at this point, but based on our conversation, I'm quite hopeful that they'll also see this is as a technical glitch that can be resolved," Beauchesne told The Review.

As it stands, the commission's decision has effectively shelved Operation Come Home's new business, which would have seen it earn $8.25 for the charity on every $15 delivery charge. It's left Beauchesne with a sour taste in his mouth; in a blog post last week, he referred to the complaint as "a cut-throat competitive tactic," saying the delivery service was intended to give employment to at-risk youth and raise donations.

"So, no specialty beer delivered to our Ottawa customers. No employment for homeless youth, to get them off the street. No additional revenue for Operation Come Home," he wrote. "What's really got me irked about this situation is the complete arbitrariness of the regulation that is being used to kill a social enterprise designed to do good for the community and the malicious behaviour by another brewery in this province."

The executive director of Operation Come Home, Elspeth McKay, said the shutdown leaves the charity without a service to offer, despite considerable time, money and effort spent creating and marketing it. She said she would consult with the charity's board of directors before deciding whether to appeal the decision.

"I find it ridiculous to shut down the beer delivery program that was planned to be run through Operation Come Home," said Corey Illingworth, one of the two youth hired to deliver the beer. "I, personally, think lots of people in Ottawa would have loved to have the service because Beau's is expanding and you can't get all of their products in Ottawa.

"Not only that but, because of this legislation, people who actually need the support, experience and opportunity from this service are being deprived of it. I believe that, if an agreement is met with a brewery and the distributor, then I don't see what the big problem is."

Both the charity and the brewery say they understand the AGCO likely had to act on the complaint, but that it would've been nice to know about these regulations when they applied for the license - which cost $500, in addition to resources spent on putting the program together as well as volunteer, board, youth and staff hours.

And while the future of the service is questionable, he is adamant that both Beau's and Operation Come Home will stand together to resolve this. From a financial perspective, at least, "neither one of us has a team of lawyers at our disposal" to have the ruling overturned, laughed Beauchesne.

The company has launched a freedom of information request in an attempt to learn the identity of the complainant. While the co-founder admits the nature of the request is personal, in part, there's also the matter of protecting other breweries' reputations.

"Ultimately, the goal is to get the service up and running," Beauchesne said. "I'm disheartened that the complaint would have come from another brewery, and I'm quite interested to know which one it is. But it would be worthwhile to know which one. Right now, a lot of people are speculating, and a lot of innocent breweries are getting blamed."