As many Canadians continue to prioritize buying locally-made products as trade tensions with the United States continue, a distillery in Johnstown, Ont. is hoping its marketing strategy will pay off.
King’s Lock Craft Distillery has been in service for roughly nine years, making and selling whiskey, gin, vodka and rum.
“I’d say the one thing we’ve noticed, particularly about customers in the last month, is talking more about local,” said co-owner Laura Bradley.
On top of being locally produced, each ingredient is acquired from farmers in eastern Ontario, as opposed to importing from the United States, putting an emphasis on supporting local as a business model.
According to Bradley, this has been the procedure at King’s Lock since the pandemic.
“It’s about supporting agriculture in Ontario,” said distiller Jeff Jocham. “It feels insane to go past all the other people, our neighbours, literally in the area, and just move right past them to someone further away just because it’s a little bit cheaper.”
Sales haven’t been impacted by the buy Canadian push yet, but Bradley expects that will change during the spring and summer.
“We’re definitely looking at all of our marketing, making sure that it’s really clear that we’re local, that we make it all here,” she said.
Heading west on Highway 401 to an LCBO in Brockville, Ont., shoppers are keeping an eye out for Canadian products.
But 82-year-old Tom O’Hearn is a veteran when it comes to buying Canadian, because he’s been doing it for years.
“Everybody should have been doing it sooner, way sooner, years sooner. We saw this coming a long time ago,” he told CTV News Ottawa Saturday.
Others like Jacqulyn Colville don’t shop for liquor often but have a clear goal in mind when they’re walking through the aisles.
“If there’s a bottle of something that has a little red flag, I just might buy one,” Colville added.
