B.C. wineries, distilleries busy as BCGEU strike continues

With the BC General Employees Union (BCGEU) strike affecting government liquor distribution for a second week, demand is picking up at local distilleries and wineries.

“Because we’re a private channel, we deal directly to private liquor stores and retailers,” said Scott Thompson, owner of Mad Laboratory Distilling in Vancouver. “We’re basically getting completely swamped with orders right now from private retail stores that are trying to make sure their shelves aren’t bare by the end of the week.”

“Within 24 hours of the announcement of the strike, we were completely out of stock of our value-priced items, and left with the premium. And now we’re back-ordering into late September.”

Read more: BCGEU, province resuming talks; union members remain on strike

But given the scale of that operation, there’s only so much that can be ramped up at Mad Laboratory.

“We’re scrambling to fill the orders as best we can,” Thompson said.

“We’re a really small production facility. We only have so much capacity. Without making major changes, we can’t really hurry the process up. We can only make what we can make. What we and a lot in the industry are really hoping is to see some long-term changes. We’re hoping a lot of these retailers that are looking to us now to supply them — maybe we’ll see a bit of a better percentage of locally made products on the shelves in a bit of a longer-term situation.”

In the meantime, Thompson says customers have been patient and understanding.

“They’ve been pretty understanding, as far as us telling them … ‘Hey, we’re completely out of stock. We’re doing our best to keep you re-stocked.’ It really, really reminds me a lot of the [hand] sanitizer crisis that we had to deal with not too long ago. It’s got a lot of those same vibes where everybody wants it, and there’s just not enough.”

The BCGEU says bargaining is expected to resume soon, but no date has been specified. Though the union calls this a “significant development,” it says job action — including pickets at four BC Liquor Distribution Centres, and an overtime ban — will continue.

The strike has resulted in a tightened supply of alcohol in the province.

Meanwhile in Langley, General Manager Brian Ensor with Chaberton Estate Winery has also seen his sales go up.

“We’re getting an uptick in sales to our resellers,” he said, adding they also deliver directly to some restaurants.

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If you typically drink a wine from further afield and it’s out of stock, this could be an opportunity to experiment with something local.

“A good bottle of wine is one you like, and a bad bottle is one you don’t. I think that people need to be adventurous and support local,” Ensor said.

With files from Mike Lloyd