John Sleeman
In 1988 John Sleeman, who had run a pub and a beer importing operation, decided to restart the family business: an historic brewery that had closed decades earlier. Under his leadership the company, known for quality craft suds, carved out enough market share to become the third-biggest brewer in Canada.
By 2006, however, deep discounting had swept the country and the brewery's rocky finances forced Mr. Sleeman to sell. Beer giant Sapporo was the winning bidder, but the Japanese firm kept the Sleeman name and business intact, and Mr. Sleeman remained in charge.
Now, Sleeman Breweries' colourful history is featured in the company's advertising campaign, and Mr. Sleeman carefully preserves family artifacts in his office in Guelph, Ont.
How did you end up with your great-grandfather's desk?
When I first started the company back in 1988, I didn't have any money to lavish on furniture so I went to IKEA and got a desk. After working at it for four or five years I got a phone call out of the blue from a woman living in Kitchener-Waterloo who said her late husband had gone to the auction of all the [Sleeman]family furniture when the [old]brewery went out of business years ago, and he bought my grandfather's desk. I went to look at it, and for a ridiculously modest sum of a few hundred dollars I got it back. It's an old smuggler's desk, with hidden compartments in it. I work every day in the same chair my great-grandfather did.
Why did you sell to Sapporo after overtures from others?
I wanted to find somebody who wouldn't just shut the brewery down. One of the things that made the Sapporo relationship attractive was that they were committed to investing in the business.
What were the other suitors' plans?
When the folks at Labatt expressed an interest in taking over the company, they made it quite clear that it would be their intention to shut the facilities down. Molson was much more interested in maintaining various parts of the operation [although]they did see there were areas of overlap, and they said they couldn't commit to keeping all the facilities open and keeping all the people.
Some European breweries also looked at it and said, 'We don't have any operations in Canada, so we'll keep them all.' We were in a fortunate position to pick and choose, and thankfully the Sapporo people also came up with the best deal for shareholders.
Did Ottawa put restrictions on Sapporo?
Sapporo agreed to Investment Canada's request that they keep the facilities open and keep the employees at certain numbers or increase them, and they have done that.
Do you support restrictions on foreign ownership of Canadian businesses?
I think it is a good thing that the Canadian government keeps an eye on these things. You can come up with examples where foreign companies have come and purchased Canadian companies, and within a certain amount of time the business has shut down and production is moved somewhere else. When I was younger I thought the government should play no part in the business world. As I get older I can see there are some benefits if somebody has a sober second thought about transactions that are large enough to affect Canada.
I don't know that any one particular part of the economy is worth protecting more than another. I think it needs to be done on a case-by-case basis. But somehow we need to make sure that the government doesn't start making decisions based on some kind of political desire to get re-elected. Let's make non-partisan decisions at the government level [based on]what's good for the country.
Why did Sapporo keep you on as CEO after they took over?
They felt that there was some intrinsic value in [keeping]the guy whose name's over the door and who has the recipe book. I've learned over the last five years that the Sapporo folks are very methodical in their decision-making process. They are quite prepared to take their time and learn about businesses. They are using Sleeman to give senior Japanese executives exposure to the world outside Japan.
Why did you step down from the CEO's job a year ago to become chairman?
[Sapporo executive]Kenny Sadai was chief operating officer for about three years, and [Sapporo]said they'd like him to get experience making CEO decisions. They said they'd like me to [stay as]chairman and mentor the people they send out. I'm involved in marketing, I've been asked to retain the relationships with governments, and I look at mergers and acquisitions.
Is it tough to step back?
Yes. I'm a bit of a control freak. I like to build things, I like to make decisions, I like to get things done. And I like to work at a higher speed than I've discovered the Japanese do.
Then why stay with the company?
I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I'm learning to take a longer approach to things. And I gave them a commitment I'd stay for another four years.
Is there still a place for small Canadian-owned craft brewers in Canada?
Absolutely. That market is growing. The small craft brewers are continuing to show leadership in exciting the consumer about what's happening in the beer industry, because it is easy to get bored and order the same old beer. I love the fact that these craft brewers are coming up with pumpkin ales and coffee porters and that kind of stuff, because it creates interest. And people are also thinking it's okay to buy local … supporting a small local brewery is cool.
Is your company still a craft brewer?
As long as consumers still come up to me and say, 'Gee, I like what you're doing,' I'll think of myself as a craft brewer. I think we have a bit of a hybrid company, because we're not big and we're not small, but we're owned by a multinational. We try and run the company every day as if we're still small.
Is the beer business still suffering from the shift to drinking wine?
We appear to have regained some of the lost ground, but we'll never get back to the point where we were 20 years ago. The wine industry has made tremendous inroads. Also, when I was younger nobody drank Scotch and whiskies except old guys. But now look at the interest in various malt whiskies and vodkas. As an industry we kind of dropped the ball in appealing to young consumers. The small brewers are getting that back, and that will help our business.
After dry beer, ice beer and lime beer, what's the next big thing?
Everybody jumped on the lime thing, and that did incredibly well for a year or so. We had lots of discussions around here about whether we were missing the boat. But it seems that some of that excitement has gone.
The new consumer seems to be interested in good old-fashioned values - what you make [the beer]from, how you make it, if it's priced reasonably, and if there's an interesting Canadian story behind it. And at the moment those things favour Sleeman.
What's your educational background?
I'm a high school dropout. I was terribly impatient as a teenager to get out of school and create businesses. I completed Grade 10. I didn't, and do not now, have the patience to sit in a classroom and read books. There are still nights when I think I should have stayed in school.
Each time I'd start [a business] I'd realize that I needed to hire people because I didn't have the skills. So I hired people who were MBAs or CMAs, or guys with marketing degrees. To my way of thinking, if you are building businesses, you need to have an entrepreneur lead the company who states the vision.
Would you start up another beer company?
Out of fairness to the people who wrote a very big cheque to buy this company, if I do something else I won't do it in the beer business.