As announced on June 16, the provincial government has approved a temporary pricing model for hospitality licensees to purchase liquor at the BC Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) wholesale price until March 31, 2021.
The first phase of the systems changes will be delivered by July 20, 2020 when hospitality customers will be able to buy at wholesale prices. Until July 20, 2020, all hospitality customers will continue to pay retail price. The second phase will be completed by September 1, 2020 and will provide hospitality customers access to the wholesale price list through the fully functioning Hospitality Product Catalogue.
The Hospitality Product Catalogue will temporarily be unavailable until July 20, 2020 while the necessary updates are made to the system to incorporate the hospitality pricing change. From July 20 through to September 1, 2020, a searchable wholesale price list file will be posted to the Catalogue as an interim measure to assist hospitality customers with their purchasing decisions until the Catalogue resumes its full functionality on September 1, 2020.
It is strongly recommended that hospitality customers register for their Hospitality Product Catalogue account as soon as possible in order to access the LDB wholesale price list starting July 20, 2020. Details explaining the onboarding process for the Product Catalogue and step-by-step registration instructions are now available here, and more detailed information on how to use the Hospitality Product Catalogue will be provided in the coming days.
The following items are needed to register an LDB Product Catalogue account:
- Hospitality licensee ID number
- Unique email address (an email address that has not been used to create any other LDB account, including for special events permits purposes)
Hospitality customers with Web Store accounts will have automatic access to wholesale prices via Web Store when they become available on July 20, 2020 and do not need to register for any additional accounts
Hospitality customers will continue to pay retail price on their orders until July 20, 2020. There will be no changes to the current hospitality customer returns policy – all sales are considered final.
We appreciate the patience and cooperation of all our customers during this transitional period. Given the volume of registrations, the processing time for Product Catalogue account activation could take up to 10 - 15 business days.
If you have any questions about the onboarding process for the Hospitality Product Catalogue, please review the FAQ page here, email wholesalehelp@bcldb.com or call 604-775-0681 / 1-888-775-0681.