Richmond’s first production brewery, Fuggles & Warlock Craftworks Ltd., goes by the motto “Keeping Beer Weird.”
Founded two years ago by Richmond-based entrepreneurs, the business has already gained significant popularity in Canada and across the world. Outside B.C., it distributes its beer to Ontario, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Brazil.
“Good branding and beers are the keys to our success,” said Fuggles’ president Tom Orange.
The beer packaging catches people’s eyes easily. Fuggles pursues a “geek culture” concept, appealing to video gaming, comic books and movies, with characters from those featured on the packages for different beer series.
The company also has retro video games set up on consoles in their tasting room.
“All the founders of our business are into the geek culture, and it appeals to many people who are also into it. It’s more of a niche market,” said Orange, who believes there is a connection between geek culture and craft beer.
“Now the population is growing and our brand appeals to a much wider market.
“But branding only gets people’s attention. We want to win customers long-term by making good beer.”
The beers it produces are also “weirdly” creative. Fuggles doesn’t adhere to traditional recipe standards, but experiments with its own recipe and has gained a reputation for producing beers that are “interesting.”
“We try to brew non-traditional styles of beer, not just traditional German or English ones, but ones with more flavours and combinations,” said Orange.
The experimentation and innovation has been very popular among beer lovers. Now the company is experiencing strong growth in international markets and is eyeing the Chinese market, according to Orange.
Fuggles will also develop its Richmond brewery to increase capacity and types of beers to meet demand.
