Sleeman Breweries Ltd.
 |
|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Alcoholic beverage |
| Founded | 1834 |
| Founder | John H. Sleeman |
| Headquarters | Guelph, Ontario, Canada |
| Products | Beer |
|
Production output
|
1,200,000 hl |
| Parent |
Sapporo Brewery (2006–present) |
| Subsidiaries | The Beer Store (2%) |
| Website | http://www.sleeman.com/ |
Sleeman Breweries is a Japanese-owned Canadian beer company founded by John W. Sleeman in 1988 in Guelph, Ontario.
In 2006, Sleeman Breweries was purchased by Sapporo Brewery for $400 million. The company owns 2 percent of Ontario's primary beer retailer The Beer Store. John W. Sleeman remained as CEO until 2010 when he relinquished that role and was made chairman of the Canadian company. The company is a significant player in beer in Canada.
John H. Sleeman was born in Cornwall, England in 1805 and came to Upper Canada (present day Ontario) in 1834, first settling in St. David's (Niagara-on-the-Lake) where he founded the Stamford Spring Brewery in 1836. He and his family moved to Guelph in 1847 where they operated a series of breweries including the Hodgert’s Brewery, and the Silver Creek Brewery, which he opened in 1851. His son George Sleeman joined the company in 1859 as general manager and was named a partner in 1865. John H. died in 1893.
By 1890, George Sleeman had achieved great success with Silver Creek Brewery which had sales in Ontario and Quebec. He incorporated it into the Sleeman Brewing and Malting Company Limited with members of his immediate family. Due to excessive investments in his Guelph Street Railway Company, he lost the businesses to the banks in 1905; he then opened the Springbank Brewery. A year later the banks sold the brewery back to Sleeman. The family subsequently operated breweries in Guelph, often with success, until 1933.
Prohibition in Canada had an effect on the business. In Ontario, prohibition started in 1916 with the passing of The Temperance Act. While that eliminated the domestic market, the law allowed for brewing for export, so the Sleemans continued to do so, shipping their products to the US. This was perfectly legal until 1919 when the Volstead Act led to Prohibition in the United States as well. The Sleeman family (including younger members) subsequently worked with bootleggers to export their beer to Michigan, paying no taxes on the illegally gained profits. Some sources (including John W. Sleeman) hint that the family was involved with Al Capone but after considerable research, historian Micheal Matchett suggests that the contact in the US was actually Rocco Perri, often called the "Al Capone of Canada" according to the book Rocco Perri: The Story of Canada's Most Notorious Bootlegger. Perri had documented connections with Guelph's large Italian population.
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Wikipedia