Growth target announced for Beau’s Brewery: $5M of giving in next 10 years
Beau’s All Natural Brewing has announced an aggressive new company-wide growth target – but it’s not in sales dollars, litres of beer or number of employees. The Ontario-based craft brewery will be aiming to achieve $5 million in donations to community-building groups, charitable organizations, and independent arts over 10 years (2016-2025). The figure is 5 times greater than the $1 million that Beau’s donated in support of these same pillars in their first 10 years of business, and with recent distribution expansion will now impact communities across Canada. In fact, Beau’s co-founder Steve Beauchesne has outlined an intention to ensure that 1% of revenue in each province where Beau’s beer is sold will be invested back locally in initiatives specific to that region.
The announcement comes on the occasion of #GivingTuesday, an “opening day” for the giving season when Canadians are invited to “share commitments, rally for favourite causes and think about others.” It also closes out a milestone 10th birthday year for Beau’s that included announcing the transfer of ownership of the brewery to its employees, the cross-Canada expansion of its portfolio of award-winning craft beers, and the launch of a project to build a locally owned, women-run craft brewery in the African republic of Rwanda. While the $5 million figure is new for the Beau’s employee-ownership team, the commitment to caring is not. Beau’s supports hundreds of charities and community groups each year. The craft brewery has a long-standing partnership with Operation Come Home (OCH), an Ottawa-based charity that works helping street-affected youth. In 2011 Beau’s conceived social enterprise BYBO, a home beer delivery service that employs homeless youth and donates the delivery fees to OCH. The program has helped fund OCH operations since 2011, and has led to many personal successes for the youth it employs.
In 2013 Beau’s was the first brewery in Canada to achieve Benefit Corporation (B-Corp) status, a third-party certification of businesses that achieve very high standards of social and environmental performance, as well as transparency and accountability. That same year Beau’s co-founders Tim and Steve Beauchesne were recognized with a Community Builder of the Year award from the Ottawa United Way. And in 2016 Beau’s signature fundraising event Oktoberfest topped the half-million dollar mark on dollars raised. The list goes on. Beau’s co-founder Steve Beauchesne says he and his father Tim are proud of all that Beau’s has accomplished in donations and support of community to date, but on the occasion of the brewery’s 10th birthday, they felt it was more important to look forward than reflect back. “We are looking at the legacy we are creating, not just in the next 10 years, but in the next 100,” he explains. “The core values we built the brewery on will stay the same – they are part of its identity, and what the people who drink our beer have come to expect.”
While the $5 million target is an aggressive one, Beau’s is off to a strong start in 2016 – donations through to November 15, 2016 sit at $290,940.