ThisWeek CW 09/17/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/09/14/brewdog-promises-locally-brewed-suds-by-july-2016.html

“Give me Columbus, or give me death,” was the slogan BrewDog representatives exclaimed to a standing-room-only crowd at the Frances Steube Community Center last week, promising to serve fresh beer from their new $30-million Canal Winchester facility by July 2016.

More than 200 people packed the room to capacity at the Sept. 8 meeting, where representatives from BrewDog and the city presented draft plans for construction and operation of the new facility and participated in a lengthy question-and-answer session.

The deal to locate the new U.S. headquarters for Scottish craft-beer brewer BrewDog was originally announced on June 29; since then, the project has been on a fast track for getting settled in and running.

BrewDog project manager Katie Murphy, who originally worked on the site-selection process as a member of Columbus2020, said Canal Winchester officials “rocked it,” resulting in the city’s selection.

“We looked at taxes, benefits, sites and workforce and found this perfect site,” Murphy said. “Canal Winchester has been part of the family since the beginning of this process … there’s no better place in the U.S. for this brewery.”

Economic development partners in the project are Jobs Ohio, Columbus 2020 and the city of Canal Winchester.

A press release from the city said Canal Winchester will give BrewDog a 15-year, 100-percent property tax exemption on the value of the building improvements, an incentive worth an estimated $2.7 million over the 15-year agreement.

Canal Winchester also will waive more than $325,000 in utility capacity and building permit fees.

Development Director Lucas Haire said the process from initial discussions to agreeing on terms to preparing for groundbreaking took less than six months to pull together, leaving some residents with unanswered questions that he invited them to ask during the meeting.

BrewDog Finance Director Neil Simpson said the company hopes to have “fresh beer in your glass by July.”

Residents seemed to be most concerned about potential odors from the brewing process, issues stemming from increased traffic and how soon the 125 new jobs at the facility will be available.

BrewDog Human Resources Manager Zarah Prior said she’d heard about the traffic and odor concerns and sat down with community members from Ellon, where BrewDog has its home operations, before leaving Scotland for the Canal Winchester meeting.

“Before I left, I was in Ellon and I heard through the grapevine that there is a worry about odor, so I sat down with some of the locals and they said, ‘odor? what odor?’ ” Prior said. “I think maybe a good thing to do would be to go back to Ellon and put you all in touch with our community in Ellon and you could become pen pals or something; but really, it might be a good idea to get you their impressions.”

According to Prior, and reiterated by Haire, the town of Ellon, which is situated about 30 minutes from Aberdeen, is very similar to Canal Winchester.

“We have ordinances in place to protect our community from odor and noise and traffic and all sorts of things,” Haire said. “I had a chance to go to Scotland and I can say for certain there is no issue with smell.

“We’ve looked at traffic at the site and the majority of the restaurant and bar traffic will be in the evenings. During the day, truck traffic there will be less than when TS Trim was running about 30 trucks a day out of there.”

Mayor Michael Ebert said he specifically asked Haire to be conscious of any odor or noise issues related to the Ellon brewery because that wouldn’t be acceptable in Canal Winchester.

“Odor was my No. 1 concern when Lucas went to Scotland to check things out, ” Ebert said.

Other than Murphy and Special Projects manager Keith Bennet, the only other two U.S. positions being filled immediately will be a CEO and director of sales.

Other positions will be filled closer to the opening of the new 100,000-square-foot facility, including roles in sales, brewing, distribution and hospitality. Murphy said a new U.S.-centric website will be online soon with updates on job offerings.

Prior added that BrewDog is currently the only hospitality company in the U.K. to pay a living wage to all of its employees, something the company plans to replicate in the U.S.

“There is a charity in the U.K. that does an annual survey to state what it requires to live on, which is so much more than a minimum wage,” Prior said. “It’s something when we come to the States we want to try and replicate to make sure we are paying our employees appropriately so that they are happy and our customers are happy.”

One audience member asked if employees would receive free beer.

“We do have a monthly beer stipend in Europe, but I don’t know how that works with the laws here,” Prior said.