Calgary’s Wild Rose Brewery was recently purchased by Sleeman Breweries Ltd. and is scheduled to undergo a massive $4.12 million upgrade and expansion of its production facility.

“We’ve seen dramatic growth of canned beer here in Alberta over the past 18 months,” said Brian Smith, Wild Rose Brewery’s director of operations. “During this time, our team had done everything possible to keep up with the increasing consumer demand. “This expansion will address our current capacity issues while providing the flexibility for further expansion to support long-term growth.”

“Everyone’s really pumped,” said Dave Klassen, vice-president of operations and logistics with Sleeman Breweries. “We acquired Wild Rose, I’m guessing it will be two years ago this May, and we did it fully expecting that we’d be able to grow the business which in turn, would require some investment so here we are not even two years later and we’re exactly in that situation.”

The upgrades are scheduled to be completed by next spring and will include a new canning line and additional tank capacity.