Tasmanian brewery James Boag will move part of its beer production to mainland Australia.
Parent company Lion made the announcement on June 25, one year after discontinuing the award-winning Two Birds beer, and The Nest taproom and brewery in Victoria.
Lion’s Australian Managing Director James Brindley said the move would save the company more than $1.5 million in transport costs to the mainland amid difficult conditions for business.
“It has been a tough time for large and small brewers with overall beer sales and production volumes in decline due to changing consumer preferences, cost-of-living pressures, and continual increases in federal government excise,” he said.
“Given this, we have made the difficult decision to move production of some beer destined for the mainland to our breweries there and are proposing to transition to a one-shift operation.”
The United Workers Union criticised the move to restructure without making it clear how a redundancy process would work.
“It threatens to rip the heart out of the place when the community loses a group of really skilled workers, and brands like James Boag’s Premium that the workers have built so proudly will effectively be outsourced to mainland breweries,” the union’s Tasmanian regional coordinator Amy Brumby said.
Politicians Debate Cause of Move
Tasmanian Labor leader Dean Winter called it “terrible news.”“The fact Tasmania will no longer brew beer sold on the mainland—including Boag’s beer itself—is a sad day for a Tasmanian icon,” he wrote on Facebook.
“We’ve already lost 5,000 jobs in the past year, businesses have been going bust at an alarming rate, and record numbers of young people are leaving for the mainland.”
Tasmania’s Liberal Business Minister Eric Abetz said the company had been cutting back on jobs as beer sales declined.
“Overseas interests [Lion is owned by Japanese giant Kirin] are not necessarily as committed to locals as those with local ownership. A commercial decision over which government has no sway,” he told The Epoch Times in a statement.
“The company had not asked for support.”
Last year, Tasmania’s premier pledged a $1 million lifeline to the James Boag’s Brewery Tours and Visitor Centre at Launceston, which he described as a vital part of the northern economy.
Lion had announced the centre’s impending closure the year before, citing a lack of beer consumption, rising costs, and the pandemic as factors.
As part of the agreement, the business allowed Tasmanian residents to tour the facility for free for 12 months, Lion later announced it would continue the free tours into 2025.
