Ingenuity, A Do-It-Yourself Attitude And Hardworking Employees Keep The Brews Coming For Happy Customers
VICTORIA – Hoyne Brewing Co. was founded in 2011 by Sean Hoyne and Chantal O’Brien. Sean, a brewmaster in the Victoria area since 1989, received his training under the exceptional and keen-eyed tutelage of Brewmaster Frank Appleton, a pioneer of the North American microbrewery movement.
Unwilling to lose employees without a fight, brewmaster Sean Hoyne transitioned to a 70/30 packaging to draft sales ratio with his new canning line, keeping homebound BC residents buying
For almost a decade, Sean and Chantal have grown their company from a humble but hungry start-up, to become one of the seventh largest craft breweries in the BC province, with no sign of slowing on their successful path as proud members of the BC brewing community.
But then, COVID-19 arrived on Canada’s West Coast, and with it a massive change to the business landscape. Sean’s was no different. Overnight, fifty-percent of Hoyne Brewing’s sales vanished, a nightmare scenario in even the best of circumstances. Sean had some difficult decisions to make.
Prior to the pandemic, Sean had invested in a substantial, sophisticated, and quite expensive canning line. He had just put down deposits on the equipment when COVID-19 hit.
Explains Sean, “I had to decide whether to hold off on completing the payments for the equipment, and ride this thing out, or to complete the payments in a very uncertain time. I decided to move forward with the plans to can our beer.”
Sean also had to grapple with what to do with forty-plus employees in a time of lockdown, and an uncertain future with brick-and-mortar customers.
With technicians unable to visit the brewery due to the pandemic, Sean and his team assembled and learned how to use their canning line in real time, keeping the business going
“I gathered our entire team and explained the situation, emphasizing that I didn’t want to lay anyone off. We put together a strategy to stay safe, implementing all of the suggested protocols. Since the technicians who would normally help set up and commission the equipment couldn’t travel, we rolled up our sleeves, learned the intricacies of the canning machinery as we worked, and built the line ourselves.”
with minimal resources, some bull-headedness and determination, Hoyne Brewing is now canning two of their most popular brands, Hoyne Pilsner and Dark Matter. With his dedicated team, Sean and Chantal found a way to maintain success in the most difficult of timelines.
“Our sales ratio between packaged and draft beer has gone from 50/50 to 70/30. We are almost at the same numbers we did last year at this time, off only by around five-percent.”
Many BC businesses have found ways to navigate the intricacies of functioning and succeeding in a global pandemic. Like them, Hoyne Brewing’s resilience should be seen as a beacon to struggling companies that there is a bright path back to better days.
