From Dock to Distillery

Georgian Bay Spirit Co. mixes craft, community and Canadian pride words & photos :: Colin Field

When Denzil Wadds and Tim Keenleyside launched Georgian Bay Spirit Co. in 2013, they weren’t distillers, brewers or beverage insiders. They were ad guys. Storytellers. But, as Wadds tells it, that’s what gave them an edge.

“We were always surrounded by stories,” he says. “And Georgian Bay is full of them.” Both founders had family cottages on the bay, where gin and tonics on the dock were a summertime ritual. The landscape—juniper bushes included—offered both inspiration and branding. All they needed was a product.

So they made one—in Wadds’ kitchen. Using a coffee siphon and a questionable countertop still, the two began experimenting with gin recipes. They tested more than 80 different blends, eventually landing on a formula that felt right—and, more importantly, one the LCBO would accept.

“They liked our label and marketing pitch before they even tried the gin,” Wadds says, laughing. “We had six weeks to come up with the liquid.”

It started with small batches and one modest gin, but Georgian Bay Spirit Co. soon found its footing. After perfecting their award-winning gin recipe with help from a professional distiller, they launched the product into the LCBO—and later, their now-iconic Gin Smash canned cocktail in 2016.

Gin Smash exploded in popularity. Wadds and Keenleyside had modestly projected 16,000 cases in the first year. They sold that in four weeks.

Ready-to-drink cocktails, or RTDs, quickly became the company’s bread and butter. Today, they offer multiple gin varieties, a whiskey and a lineup of smash-style coolers, including Smashed Tea and Cranberry Gin Smash. And they make it all in their Collingwood-based distillery, built just steps from the shores that inspired the name.

While the drink world is increasingly dominated by conglomerates, Georgian Bay Spirit Co. remains proudly Canadian—and fiercely independent.

“We’re one of the last independently owned, at-scale beverage companies in the country,” says Wadds. “Our investors are Canadian. Our employees are Canadian. We get almost everything—from ingredients to packaging—from Canadian suppliers.”

That includes the juniper, at least in part. While the company sources from Tuscany and other regions for consistency and quality, they also harvest some juniper from the Georgian Bay region, where the wild shrubs dot the shoreline.

Even their cans—though currently made in the U.S.—start with Canadian aluminum. And their commitment to staying local runs deep, especially in a climate where many small companies have already been absorbed by international players.

Sustainability isn’t just a marketing buzzword at Georgian Bay—it’s baked into the business. Jeff Young, the company’s supply planning and sustainability manager, has been spearheading efforts to better measure and reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

“When I took on the role, I really wanted to revisit how we were doing things operationally,” says Young. “I got connected with an organization called Radicle Climate Smart… They helped us go through our whole supply chain and calculate our emissions.”

One of the biggest emissions culprits? Shipping gin from Collingwood all the way to British Columbia. “So we made a few operational changes,” Young explains. “We started producing some of our RTD products closer to the markets they’re sold in. That cut down on emissions and costs at the same time.”

He points out that 90 per cent of a ready-to-drink cocktail is water. “It makes way more sense to produce it out west for the western market, instead of sending it by truck and rail across the country.”

Another major win? Packaging innovation. Georgian Bay Spirit Co. was the first Canadian beverage brand to adopt an eco-friendly paper bottle. “It’s about five times lighter than glass,” says Young. “And it’s all manufactured in Guelph, with 100 per cent recycled cardboard.”

They’ve also partnered with Georgian Bay Forever and Canada’s Forest Trust to extend their impact beyond the bottle, including shoreline cleanups, tree planting and even a microplastics awareness event held at their retail store.

“We planted our first forest last year in the Beaver Valley,” Young says proudly. “And we’re doubling our planting efforts every year with a five-year plan to offset our emissions.”

With a booming RTD lineup and strong distribution across Canada, Georgian Bay Spirit Co. isn’t sitting still (pun intended). They’re developing new non-alcoholic offerings to tap into the growing sober-curious market.

“Innovation is a big part of staying relevant,” says Wadds. “We spend a lot of time looking at global trends—what’s happening in Japan, Europe, Australia—and using that to fuel what we do next.”

Whatever comes next—be it new flavours, formats or entirely alcohol-free lines—one thing is clear: Georgian Bay Spirit Co. is doing it their own way. Sustainably. Independently. And unapologetically Canadian.