The LCBO is chugging The Beer Store’s market share.
The Beer Store’s share of Ontario’s alcohol market is expected to plunge to 15 per cent by 2026-27 from 41.1 per cent this year as a result of expanded alcohol retailing, according to provincial government estimates released Thursday.
The LCBO’s share, meanwhile, is forecast to grow to 77.1 per cent from 51.2 per cent, largely as a result of its growing role as a wholesaler to new retail outlets. The estimates were released as part of the government’s Fall Economic Statement.
It’s a dramatic fall from grace for the brewery-owned retailer which at its peak controlled 90 per cent of Ontario’s beer market.
The Beer Store’s fate has been up in the air since the government announced it would be expanding alcohol sales to corner stores, grocery stores and big-box retailers such as Costco and Walmart.
Corner store sales began Sept. 5, a week after the government announced it had reached an agreement with The Beer Store to get an early jump on wide-open alcohol retailing that would otherwise have had to wait until the beginning of 2026, after the official end of the Master Framework Agreement. The province had announced in December that it wouldn’t be renewing the MFA.
Just 405 stores have been granted one of the new grocery store licenses and will be selling alcohol beginning Thursday, according to figures from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.
Another 450 grocery stores across the province were already selling beer and wine under the MFA, a 10-year agreement with The Beer Store and its owners. The Beer Store is owned by Labatt, Molson Coors and Sleeman.
The Beer Store began life as The Brewers Warehousing Company in 1927, the same year Prohibition ended in Ontario.
The Beer Store’s market share has dwindled more quickly since the introduction of the MFA in 2015 allowed grocery stores to bid for beer-selling licences.
In the 2020-21 fiscal year, The Beer Store had just under 63 per cent of the market, according to the LCBO. It’s also seen its number of stores shrink in recent years to 440 from 450. At its peak in the late 1970s and early ’80s, it controlled well over 90 per cent of the beer market in the province, with the LCBO controlling the rest.
As part of the “early implementation agreement” announced in late August, The Beer Store has to keep at least 386 stores open until July 1, 2025. From July 1, 2025, through the end of that year, they have to keep at least 300 open. The following year? There’s no minimum store count mandated.
