It’s closing time for Toronto’s oldest and biggest beer festival.
The company which runs the Toronto Festival of Beer has filed for bankruptcy, leaving behind more than $2 million in unsecured debts to festival vendors, Scotiabank, and two companies run by GFL vice president Ted Manziaris.
Beerlicious Inc., owned by festival founder Les Murray, filed for bankruptcy April 13, owing $2,007,361.26, and listing just $8,087.13 in assets, according to a notice to creditors prepared by MNP Debt Solutions, which was appointed as bankruptcy trustee.
According to licenced insolvency practitioner David Lewis — who’s not associated with the Beerlicious case — creditors almost certainly won’t be able to collect anything at all.
“They’re unlikely to get anything,” said Lewis, a partner at BDO, and a member of the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals. “The trustee’s fees will eat up that $8,000 first.”
The biggest single creditor listed in the notice to creditors is Scotiabank, with a line of credit debt of $451,365.00, and $78,094.23 owing on a credit card.
Two companies with Manziaris listed as the sole director are owed a total of more than $500,000. Manziaris-controlled Kacy Corp. is owed $477,995.06, while Manziaris-controlled Soultana Capital is owed $46,510.80.
Kacy Corp’s headquarters was listed as Manziaris’s home which was shot at along with the home of GFL CEO Patrick Dovigi in Sept., 2024. A man was charged earlier this month with the shootings.
Manziaris declined to comment for this article.
In a text message, Murray blamed the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and shifting consumption patterns for the bankruptcy, which will go before a formal meeting of creditors Thursday.
“The last number of years been so hard with (the) pandemic hangover and changing attitudes around alcohol consumption,” Murray wrote.
“I really feel bad for long-time vendors and suppliers that I couldn’t get covered off,” added Murray, who is also listed as a creditor. “It comes at financial costs to the many that supported TFOB and to my family/myself personally.” According to the filing, Murray is personally owed $23,233.81.
The festival began in 1996, and ran every year since, except for 2020 and 2021, when it was called off because of COVID.
The creditors list includes many long-time vendors and suppliers, including breweries, importers and food vendors.
Guy McMclelland, whose company McClelland Premium Imports was a regular presence at the show, said he’s sorry to see the festival go, even though his company is owed $5,329.48.
“It’s disappointing. Five thousand dollars is nothing to sneeze at for a small business like mine,” said McClelland, who explained the unpaid debt was for tokens his company’s booth at the show had collected last summer in exchange for handing out samples of their imported brews.
“That token money would help defray the cost of renting a booth,” said McClelland. “We’d usually just let Les roll it over into the next year’s booth fees, but that’s not happening now.”
McClelland says he’ll still miss the festival, which he says helped him create a market for high-end imported beer in Toronto.
“We were with that festival since its inception. We were there every single year it happened,” said McClelland. “It was huge for us.”
The pandemic, McClelland said, hit the entire food and beverage industry.
“All of us in this industry have had some tosses and turns with COVID,” McClelland added. “Any business related to this industry — there’s no one untouched.”
One vendor owed more than $4,000 declined to comment on the bankruptcy, saying they didn’t want to risk their chances of collecting even a fraction of what they’re owed.
Beer and spirits author and consultant Stephen Beaumont said that the festival fell victim not just to shifting drinking patterns, but also to a smaller-is-better trend.
“People are after more of a curated experience rather than these giant events,” said Beaumont, noting that the long-running Great American Beer Festival in Colorado has switched to a much smaller venue, and that Montreal’s Mondial de la Biere recently announced it’s switching to every other year instead of annually.
Beaumont admitted he’d never been particularly fond of the Toronto festival, saying that over the last decade or so, beer often seemed like an afterthought.
“It really became a music festival with a beer component, rather than a beer festival,” said Beaumont.
Among the musicians to play at the festival over the years were Ice Cube, T-Pain, Salt and Peppa, I Mother Earth and Ludacris.
“You can’t just throw a bunch of bands on the stage and expect it to attract the same number of people as it did in its heyday,” said Beaumont.
