Graham Sherman’s phone was flooded with texts on a late night in June. His inbox was awash with messages from his friends in the brewery industry who told him that Ol’ Beautiful, one of Calgary’s most cherished breweries, was being consumed by a blaze. Sherman, a partner at Tool Shed Brewing Company, learned the next day that .
“It was a horrific thing to actually hear what the extent of the damage truly was,” he said. He immediately knew his company would support the brewery. “The next day, we had a leadership meeting and came up with ideas on how we could support Ol’ Beautiful,” Sherman said.
“We found out pretty quickly there was business interruption insurance, but that the staff themselves were struggling to find a way to get paid while they figured out what they were going to do next.” Two months later, on Wednesday, Tool Shed will host a fundraising event, proceeds from which will be donated to the staff. “It’s absolutely the core DNA of our business is to support the other breweries around us,” Sherman said.
“It’s also helped keep us alive during the pandemic — when we couldn’t sell beer to bars and pubs and restaurants, we started packaging beer for other breweries so that they could have cans that they could sell in liquor stores — those contracts kept us alive, as well.” Tool Shed will invite the company to its space, brew Ol’ Beautiful’s beer in one of its tanks and sell it at the brewery. The brewery will also package the beer and let Ol’ Beautiful sell cans at liquor stores, with all proceeds flowing to staffers affected by the fire.
Tool Shed’s philanthropy comes after a tumultuous spell of events. The company had filed for insolvency in the spring after numerous attempts to pay off its debt. Problems began to erupt during the pandemic, which was disastrous for its business, said the company’s new CEO, James Costello.
Emerging from COVID restrictions, the company needed more debt to survive, which began a chain of events that led to its creditors calling their loans and an insolvency proceeding that restructured the firm. “We now have a brand new group of which many investors from before have actually reinvested in a company, and so they still believe in the concept, which is great for us, because they’re still on board,” Costello said. He added things have started looking up for the company.
“We are in excess of 60 per cent ahead of last year in sales.” Costello said as part of its mission, the company wants to support other breweries that are struggling. “We believe they’re allies, and we are uniquely situated as being a very large brewery in the craft space that we can afford to do things like that.
” Chris Carol, owner of Ol’ Beautiful, said such efforts “go a long way.” The company, which would regularly host several programs, including Pride parties, lost a chunk of its brewery equipment in the fire — although it retains a part of its production capacity at another facility. Carol added he eventually plans to reopen the brewery.
Meanwhile, fundraising events by the community — the company has raised nearly $26,000 in donations — have been emotional. “It’s been overwhelming in a good way,” Carol said..
