Northern Ontario distilleries, breweries see products fly off the shelf

CTV National News: End of a dry July Ontario's LCBO strike is over after two weeks as the union worried over jobs with sales expanding to other stores. Janice Golding reports.

Northern Ontario distilleries and breweries have been busy keeping up with increased demand for their product since the LCBO strike began on July 5.

One of those businesses seeing an increase in traffic is Crosscut Distillery in Greater Sudbury. The award-winning distillery has been around for six years and distills all of its spirits in-house.

Staff at Crosscut told CTV News as the LCBO stores remain shuttered the distillery’s self-made spirits are flying off the shelf.

The staff said some customers have had to remain patient explaining that at times, the business has struggled to keep up with the needs of patrons with the distillery not only busier than ever but many new faces walking through the door.

“Of course, we are happy to expand our reach and meet new faces and kind of get our product out there more,” said Corissa Blaseg, general manager at Crosscut Distillery.

“We are looking forward to building on that relationship with the community and we hope that when the LCBO opens back up again that they can continue to support us through the LCBO as well.”

Similar businesses across northern Ontario and the rest of the province have told CTV news they are seeing an increase in retail sales – however, they add the lack of LCBO sales likely nearly balances things out.