On January 9th, Arden/Winnipeg's own Farmery Estate Brewery made an appearance on the ever popular Dragon's Den TV show. Spoilers below. To watch the episode, click here!TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE!
This isn't the first time the Warwaruk bros made an appearance on Dragon's Den! The brothers made their first pitch back on the very first episode back in 2006 where they tried to woo the dragons with a secure gift card that could be used all over Canada, the dragons weren't satisfied, so they left empty handed.
This didn't stop the Warwaruk brothers, this time they came back to bet the farm to sell the Farmery brand to the dragons. If you've been following the Farmery for the past year or two, you know that they grow the ingredients on the farm, but they send off the ingredients to Ontario to get brewed. Now, they are ready to finally build a brewery. They came to Dragon's Den asking for $200,000 for 20% stake Farmery to get the brewery built. They predict it would cost $1.5 Million to get the building up and running.
Beer snobs in Manitoba wrote off Farmery's beer early on as being yet another lager in an over lagered industry, but talking to average Manitobans and tourists, they absolutely loved the beer. The idea of an estate brewery in rural Manitoba is one of the first of its kind in North America as well - imagine the ability to try the beer right where the ingredients were grown and brewed, just like a winery in BC, Ontario or Quebec.
Unlike beer snobs, the dragons all seemed to love the taste of the beer, but we have to remember.. the Farmery is aimed at the regular beer drinker in the first place.
In the end, the Warwaruk brothers were able to reach a deal with Arlene and David, getting $200,000 for 6% in royalties from the sale of the beer.
Congrats Farmery! It's going to help with rural Manitoba tourism, this is what we need - we have the resources, we have the people, we need to use what we have!
Discuss: What's your thoughts on the episode?
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