And some of you wonder why my first instinct is to shred Upper Canadians on sight, lmfao.....“Premium quality manufacturing is where there’s opportunity,”
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GUYSBOROUGH — These days it’s a bit hard to believe that people once killed each other for the ownership of Chedabucto Bay and the small village nestled deep within the embrace of its great arms.
Now, it’s hard to get people to visit, let alone convince the children of those who already live in Guysborough County that the world isn’t waiting for them somewhere else.
Statistics Canada records show the county’s population dropped by nearly 500 people between 2006 and 2011, leaving 4,189 residents to call the area home.
But there’s something brewing in Guysborough. Under his brand, Authentic Seacoast Co., Ontario business man Glynn Williams has been instrumental in restarting a brewery, opening a coffee roastery and cafe and revitalizing a golf course and an inn.
“Premium quality manufacturing is where there’s opportunity,” said Williams said during a recent interview at his headquarters in a renovated century-old Guysborough storefront.
“Tourism has been in cyclical decline for years. You’re competing with Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and a host of other places for a set number of dollars. What you need to offer is something people can’t get anywhere else. What we have here is authenticity.”
Guysborough’s got authenticity growing everywhere.
There’s no garish resorts where impoverished locals paint on smiles to pour mixed drinks by the gallon for wealthy North Americans desperate to blast the mundane from their daily lives into oblivion.
There’s a quiet village where people have been making a living from the forest and the sea for 350 years. A village where, in 1659, Nicholas Deny opened Atlantic Canada’s first commercial brewery.
But authenticity doesn’t pay the bills or bring your children home.
Still Guysborough has Williams.
The engineer-financial analyst bought a 150-year-old farmhouse in nearby St. Francis Harbour, complete with outhouse and hand pump, 25 years ago as a place his growing family to find some peace of mind from their lives in Toronto.
“I enjoyed the anonymity,” said the owner of aerospace companies, engineering firms and longtime financial analyst.
But when the DesBarres Manor Inn, a stately structure built in 1837, was left abandoned after a failed effort to revitalize it by a German investor, Williams precious anonymity came to an end.
He bought it, cleaned up the mould that had taken hold during its closure, pumped $1-million in renovations into the building and reopened it.
Then a renovated brew-pub on the waterfront was left abandoned in similar style after its owner, a German investor, suffered health problems. Williams bought it too and opened it as the Rare Bird Pub, a craft brewery.
Then he bought an adjacent abandoned general store and renovated it into a coffee shop and store.
In 2006, he bought the Osprey Shores, a nine-hole golf course, and pumped some more money into it. Then in 2011, he bought a bankrupt convenience store and renovated it into a bakery and coffee roastery.
So far, he’s pumped $8 million of his own money into Guysborough, and he’s in talks with architects to build a distillery beside the golf course.
The idea is to merge premium manufacturing with tourism opportunities under his Authentic Seacoast brand, following the example of communities like Freeport, Maine.
It’s a move countless rural Nova Scotian communities, drained by declining resource industries, would love to emulate.
But investors willing to spend millions and operate at a loss for years as the brand is built are rare.
“We are fortunate to have him,” Lloyd Hines, warden of Guysborough County, said.
“But in order for these things to happen there has to be planning involved that is long range and profound. In order for Mr. Williams to take root, he needed the necessary infrastructure in place.”
Hines’ council has been seeking to lay the groundwork for business.
They expropriated land for Maher Melford Terminal’s proposed $350-million container terminal, a project that remains in limbo, and rezoned land to accommodate industrial development in the former community of Goldboro.
They took tax proceeds from the natural gas coming onshore from Sable Island and invested them in a six, 2.3-megawatt, turbine project near Canso that is expected to pay dividends to the municipal government for the next 20 years.
Over the past year, they’ve seen two companies step forth, H-Energy of India and Pieridae Energy of Calgary, with proposals to build multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas plants in the county.
But there have been many big announcements for industrial development in Guysborough before that never came to fruition, so many residents are taking a wait and see approach.
Meanwhile, there’s Williams, who currently employs 20 people as he builds a brand and markets for the products of Authentic Seacoast.
“It takes vision and time, and you have to have deep pockets to take the losses for an extended period of time,” Williams said.
Asked when he expects to start seeing a profit, Williams replied, “It’ll be ready when it’s due.”
But I would really like to see honest and correct assessment of what's in the bottle, not who made it, or worse, who happens to own the brewery, as long as they live here. And as long as they KILL the big guys in jobs/litre.