Latest News
Andrew Harris CEO and Gillian Nixon director marketing, Britebev Brands & Fuggles Beer.
Photo courtesy Scott Jensen
Fuggles Beer—Richmond’s only brewing production facility
By Joe Leary
Published 12:04 PDT, Fri March 28, 2025
—
Craft Beer exploded in BC some fifteen or so, years ago and an entire industry suddenly sprung up. Densely populated areas began witnessing beer communities developing; seemingly overnight.
East Vancouver; dubbed ‘Yeast Van’, became something of lore among beer folk; offering numerous local breweries, all within a short walk of each other.
This created dedicated beer destinations; further establishing a close-knit beer culture. Since those halcyon days there has been some recession. It was inevitable given both the pandemic and the economic realities of post- lockdown life.
Some breweries redesigned or re-imagined their business models to address modern day complexities.
In Richmond, ‘Fuggles and Warlock’ (F&W) opened its doors in 2015 with the stated goal of ‘Keeping Beer Weird’.
With an estimated 217,239 residents as of 2024, the area is somewhat underserved in the craft environment, given its population.
F&W were the 79th brewing license granted in BC. That number now totals 238, including Taprooms and Brewpubs—which speaks to the local craft beer industry’s phenomenal growth.
Restructuring through the years; ‘Fuggles Beer’ remains as Richmond’s sole production facility.
The concept is the brainchild of a group of veteran Craft Beer experts, led by longtime advocate, Andrew Harris, CEO of Britebev Brands and Fuggles Beer.
“We took over ‘Fuggles’ on Feb. 4, 2024,” he says of the newly-acquired brand. “I had been consulting and chatting to a bunch of breweries and was seeing that the craft industry was beginning to struggle.
“There were a lot of pain points and not many were making any kind of profit.
“I thought every brewery has a sales team; a delivery truck; a bookkeeper and administration—so what if we pulled together a bunch of smaller brands and put them into one facility and got rid of the duplication?
“Our idea is to consolidate a number of brands: beer, cider, RTD (Ready to drink canned cocktails); even wine—and put them all under one roof, with consolidated delivery, sales and administration.
“It just makes sense”.
The inherent problem was that there weren’t many facilities available that could accommodate such an undertaking.
Enter Fuggles Beer.
With 10,000 square feet of production space in industrial park Richmond, it would serve the concept well; given its capability of producing 26,000 hectoliters (one hectoliter equals 100 liters).
“Since the facility has a ton of capacity, we merged with Container Brewing and moved their production from East Van to Richmond.
“We are now producing their products here.
“Container Brewing stands alone but is part of our group; eliminating some of the production costs between the two breweries”.
Additional brands continue to develop within the Britebev portfolio.
“We’ve cultivated a beer out of our facility called ‘Curious Creatures’.
“It’s the creation of craft beer enthusiast Sebastien Peterson; who found the perfect environment with us to bring his vision to life.
“We encourage brands like this to develop and grow within our system, giving them the support they need to thrive.
“We also launched ‘Force’; our value play—a more affordable, 5% ABV Lager and Ale”.
Harris is enthused about the Richmond facility and its capability.
“We were extremely lucky to find a brewery of this size and with all this amazing Canadian made equipment.
“When it came onto the market, it perfectly fit our model and gave us the ability to consolidate numerous brands and further maximize capacity.”
In real estate, the mantra is location, location; location.
This philosophy certainly applies to this venture; especially given Richmond’s easy accessibility for major distribution.
“If it was to this scale and sitting in Chilliwack it wouldn’t be as successful as being here in Richmond,” says Harris.
And with capital costs increasing, along with rent and property taxes, models like the Britebev concept can potentially throw the craft beer a much-needed lifeline.
“It’s hard for the small guys to do well,” he says of the current environment.
“Some do, but they’re generally operating as a restaurant and brewery—Fuggles is a brewery primary and our tasting room is secondary.
“That’s why it’s so important for us to grow as a manufacturer”.
Adding another twist is the recent introduction of tariffs, which will inflict further pain on BC Craft Beer.
“Fuggles packaging is entirely canned”, he says, “and despite the aluminum being of Canadian origin, it’s shipped south to be made into cans”.
Hopefully Governments will ease inter-provincial restrictions and allow Canadian products to flow freely.
It’s something Andrew Harris is hoping for.
“We want to take Richmond beer and sell it to Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario,” he adds.
“It would certainly help our industry when we most need it.”
2 Hours of free financial consulting
Jai Xin Planning Ltd.
C$120.00 C$0.00
Use any of our home staging service and get a second month rental for free!
MiiX Interiors
C$500.00 C$0.00
Get 10% off any order
Phantom Screens Lower Mainland
C$200.00 C$180.00
