Labatt to invest $40M in London brewery

Labatt Breweries on Tuesday put the financial flesh on its earlier announcement of an imminent upgrade at its brewery in London, Ont. It said it will invest $40 million expanding the plant – enough to build a facility capable of producing a billion bottles of beer annually. The expansion will begin next month and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. Labatt said the expansion will result in a 45 per cent increase in capacity. The expansion announcement has been expected ever since Labatt announced in March that its Toronto brewery would close and capacity would be hiked at its lone remaining Ontario brewery in London. Labatt was founded in London in 1847. Interbrew of Belgium bought it in 1995, and Interbrew then merged with AmBev of Brazil to create InBev. Labatt is Canada's largest brewery. It has 3,800 Canadian workers at eight breweries across the country.