Archive record · Brewery
Labatt Brewing Company
London, Ontario, Canada
Also known as Labatt Breweries of Canada, John Labatt Limited
- Founded
- 1847
- Archive ID
- TB-QYCWESEY
- Last checked
- 2026-08-05
Who owns this brewery?
The direct owner is recorded. No company is held above it.
- Labatt Brewing CompanyThis brewery
- Anheuser-Busch InBevConglomerate
Tally Answers Beta
- Who owns this brewery?
- Anheuser-Busch InBev is the ultimate parent; the direct holding entity has not been establishedVerified
- Is this brewery independent?
- NoVerified
- Who founded this brewery?
- John Kinder Labatt is conventionally credited as the founder, but he entered a brewery that already existed — one established by John Balkwill in 1827-28 and operated by Samuel Eccles when Labatt invested in it in 1847Verified
- When was this brewery founded?
- 1847Verified
- What is this brewery's current lifecycle status?
- ACTIVEVerified
From the record
Summary
Canada's largest brewing company. Acquired by Interbrew in 1995 and now a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev. Brews and distributes Budweiser and Bud Light in Canada alongside its own brands; Kokanee is brewed at its Creston, BC plant.
A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.
Tally’s Take
The largest brewer in Canada, and not Canadian. Labatt has been brewing in London, Ontario since 1847 — older than the country it sells to — and produced the beer that was Canada's best-selling for nearly thirty years. Interbrew bought it in 1995, and through the mergers that followed it became a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev. Today Labatt brews Budweiser for the Canadian market: the national brewer of Canada, making an American lager, owned from Leuven. Blue and 50 are still genuinely part of the country's furniture, which is exactly what makes the ownership question worth asking rather than shrugging at.
The founding thesisJohn Kinder Labatt bought a half share in a small London, Ontario brewery in 1847. Six generations of consolidation later it is Canada's largest brewing company, and Belgian-owned.
Ownership & corporate history
- Acquired by Interbrew1995
What the sources say
Researched 2026-09-13 (Wikidata parent lead); no held claim preceded it. CAD 2.7bn, agreed June 1995. Interbrew became InBev (2004) and Anheuser-Busch InBev (2008); the archive's subsidiary_of AB InBev event is the present state of this chain.
- Subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev)Date unknown
Partly settledCurrent evidence supports this, but the record is not fully resolved.
What the sources say
Current Canadian federal lobbying registration identifies AB InBev as Labatt's parent company. Source: https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/secure/ocl/lrs/do/vwRg?cno=6255®Id=880762
Ownership history is kept as dated events, so a change of owner never overwrites the one before it.
Events
- Labatt was acquired by Belgian brewer Interbrew in 1995.1995
Current ultimate parent is AB InBev; intermediate corporate evolution is preserved separately.
- Labatt donated its material culture collection of brewery artifacts and art to Museum London.2010-20
MATERIAL_CULTURE_DONATION
Museum London describes roughly 5,300 historical artifacts.
- Labatt donated its corporate archive to Western University for preservation and research.2011
ARCHIVE_DONATION
Collection spans 1832–2009.
- Oland brewing assets sold to John Labatt LimitedDate unknown
ASSET_ACQUISITION
Official Oland history describes a brewing-asset sale for approximately $12 million and formation of Oland's Breweries (1971) Limited to run the breweries.
The Museum
Timeline
- 1847Founded in London, Ontario
John Kinder Labatt takes a half share in a small brewery on the Thames in London, Ontario — twenty years before Confederation.
- 1933The yeast strain
The ale yeast still used in Labatt 50 goes into service, and has been propagated continuously ever since — one of the longest-running yeast lineages in North American brewing.
- 1950Labatt 50
Launched to mark fifty years of partnership between the founder's grandsons. It went on to be Canada's best-selling beer for nearly three decades.
- 1951Labatt Pilsner
The beer that becomes Blue launches as Labatt Pilsner — nicknamed for its label, and for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers it sponsored.
- 1968Renamed Blue
Labatt Pilsner formally becomes Labatt Blue, and grows into the company's flagship.
- 1995Sold to Interbrew
Belgium's Interbrew buys Labatt — the entity that becomes InBev in 2004 and Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2008. Canada's largest brewer passes permanently out of Canadian ownership.
The Canadian Encyclopedia — Belgian Brewery Buys Labatt (Interbrew, 1995)
- 2000sBrewing Budweiser at home
Through its parent, Labatt brews and distributes Budweiser and Bud Light for Canada. Budweiser becomes the country's top-selling beer brand, made by the company that once defined Canadian beer.
The People
Behind the beer
An Irish-born farmer who bought into a London, Ontario brewery in 1847 and gave the company his name. His descendants ran it for over a century.
The Beer Library
Beers
Labatt Blue
Year-RoundAmerican Pale Pilsner
Launched 1951 as Labatt Pilsner, renamed Blue in 1968. The flagship, and for decades the default Canadian lager abroad.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Labatt 50
Year-RoundGolden Ale
Introduced in 1950 for the founders' grandsons' fiftieth year of partnership. Uses an ale yeast strain in continuous use since 1933, and was Canada's best-selling beer for nearly thirty years. Launched 1950 as the 50th Anniversary Ale for John S. and Hugh Labatt's fifty-year partnership — "Annie", then "50" — per Labatt's own history. Still a listed SKU at BC Liquor Stores in September 2026 (out of stock the day it was read); an Ontario listing was not confirmed that day. A viewer asked on 21 September 2026 whether it was still around: it is.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Labatt Blue Light
Year-RoundLight Lager
The lower-calorie, lower-alcohol Blue.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Labatt Ice
Year-RoundIce Beer
Freeze-distilled by a patented cold-staging process that filters out ice crystals — the beer at the centre of the early-90s ice beer war with Molson.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Travel Guide
Plan a visit
Labatt operates breweries across Canada, including Creston, British Columbia, where Kokanee is brewed. The London plant is the original site.
Follow the money
How it changed hands
1 recorded move- 1847Founded
John Kinder Labatt bought a half share in a small London, Ontario brewery in 1847. Six generations of consolidation later it is Canada's largest brewing company, and Belgian-owned.
- 1995Sold to Interbrew
Belgium's Interbrew buys Labatt — the entity that becomes InBev in 2004 and Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2008. Canada's largest brewer passes permanently out of Canadian ownership.
Today the chain tops out at Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Surviving objects
1 object catalogued here so far, held by Labatt Brewing Company Collection (AFC 101), Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries, Western University — as described in the collection's finding aid. That is what the archive has recorded, not the extent of what the holder keeps — follow each link for the institution's own finding aid or catalogue. The archive links to each record rather than reproducing its photograph; the images belong to the holding institution and are licensed object by object.
- Labatt Bottle & Neck Label Corpus[ca. 1885]–2007
ARCHIVAL LABEL CORPUS / HISTORICAL OBJECT GROUP
Show your working
Sources
- controlConfirmed
Labatt Brewing Company is controlled by Founder / family.
Anheuser-Busch InBev — SEC filing · U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-02
PrimaryHigh reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-05Claim last checked 2026-08-05
Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.
Straight answers
Common questions about Labatt Brewing Company
- Who owns Labatt Brewing Company?
- Labatt Brewing Company is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Labatt Brewing Company is based in London, Canada.
- Is Labatt Brewing Company still independent?
- No. Labatt Brewing Company is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev and is no longer independent.
- When was Labatt Brewing Company acquired?
- 1995. Belgium's Interbrew buys Labatt — the entity that becomes InBev in 2004 and Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2008. Canada's largest brewer passes permanently out of Canadian ownership.
- When was Labatt Brewing Company founded?
- Labatt Brewing Company was founded in 1847 in London, Canada.
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