Good Things Brewing for More than 150 Years

Labatt has deep roots in Canada stemming from its founder John Kinder Labatt. In 1847, a little more than a decade after arriving in London, Ontario from Ireland, John Labatt revealed in a letter what was to be his life-long calling: “I have been considering this brewing affair for some time,” he wrote to his wife, “and think it would suit me better than anything else...”

That same year, he purchased London’s Simcoe Street brewery in partnership with Samuel Eccles and by 1853 had become the brewery’s sole proprietor. The brewery was later renamed John Labatt’s Brewery, marking the beginning of one of Canada’s largest and most successful companies.

Along with a passion to brew beer, John Labatt also knew a thing or two about business. He realized the Great Western Railway, completed in the late 1850s, was the company’s ticket to expansion outside London. No longer limiting beer sales to London and environs, the railway opened new markets for Labatt in Toronto, Montréal and the Maritimes and formed the foundation for future aggressive marketing strategies.