Irritated by the regulatory context, Quebec microdistilleries are asking the Legault government to remove the markup collected by the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) on sales made at production sites. This perforation represents up to 52% of the price of a bottle of spirits.
Interviewed on the show Economy zone on Tuesday, the president of the Union québécoise des microdistilleries (UQMD), Jonathan Roy, maintains that two microdistilleries out of three are losing money in the province and some of its members are in extreme poverty for two years.
In a bottle sold at the retail price of $ 40, the markup collected by SAQ represents $ 20.30. The alcohol tax in particular ($ 0.98), the QST ($ 3.47), the federal excise tax ($ 3.53) and the GST ($ 1.74) complete the tax picture. The amount received by the manufacturer was $ 9.98.
L ‘UQMD recently proposed to the Government of Quebec to review this sharing. In exchange for the abolition of the extra collected SAQ on sales in manufacturing areas, the association proposes to raise the specific alcohol tax to $ 9.13 for a bottle sold at the retail price of $ 40. The other taxes remain as they are. In this scenario, the amount the manufacturer will receive would be $ 22.13, which would boost the microdistillery’s profit margins, which have been declining since 2017.
Half of the increase is used to cover operating costs SAQexplanation by Jonathan Roy, president and co-owner of the Fils du Roy distillery, located in Saint-Arsène in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region.
And there they say that is not fair. This is not a valid transaction because SAQ not interfering with the transaction. No distribution, no marketing and no saleshe says.
Although the microdistillery sector is emerging, a large majority of companies have lost more than a third of their space on the shelves of SAQ.
It’s just our distribution network and the network is full. In fact, there are so many Quebec products and there isn’t enough shelf space. And there, what is happening is that our products are no longer properly distributed and we want to have a way of selling or joining the local economy.argument by Jonathan Roy.
The trader believes that volumes are favored on the side of SAQ, which means large distilleries will survive. Distilleries that bring a lot of new products to market will also survive, Roy said.
Distilleries that want to produce a more durable product, with a well -presented brand image, are having a harder time surviving today, if it should be the opposite.He added.
Today, the Fils du Roy distillery is still alive, but Jonathan Roy said so quietly eating up its capital. Not every distillery is fortunate to have a wool sock, Mr. Roy said.
If nothing changes, distilleries will announce their closure at the end of the summer. We ask the Department of Finance to intervene to save the young Quebec spirits industry.
In a consultation conducted with its members, 70% of microdistilleries believe that the biggest barrier to their development is the increase in SAQ in selling a home.
It is impossible for most microdistilleries to develop, or even survive, in the current contextends inUQMD in a press release.
Source: Radio-Canada
