To support industry recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Provincial government has approved a temporary pricing model for hospitality licensees to purchase liquor at the Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) wholesale price until March 31, 2021.
The LDB is following a two-phased approach to quickly implement the required systems changes. The first phase will be delivered by July 20, 2020, when hospitality customers will be able to purchase liquor at wholesale price. Please note:
- Hospitality customers will continue to pay retail price on their orders until July 20, 2020.
- There will be no changes to the current returns policy – all sales are considered final. Details on return guidelines can be found here.
The second phase will be completed by September 1, 2020 and will provide hospitality customers access to the wholesale price list online.
Instructions on the onboarding process will be posted shortly. LDB is also working on an interim solution to provide wholesale price lists to hospitality customers who don’t have access to the LDB hospitality portal.
This initiative was recommended by the Business Technical Advisory Panel (BTAP) and expedited to provide much needed support to the hospitality industry and broader tourism sector that has been greatly impacted by COVID-19.
Government also released the results of Deloitte Canada’s assessment of the LDB’s distribution centre in Delta. Among other changes, the report recommended the addition of an order management system that will provide wholesale customers with greater visibility into the status of orders and a transportation management system to optimize transportation efficiency.
The LDB will begin work on Deloitte’s recommendations after the temporary hospitality pricing model is operational. Deloitte also presented Government with options to replace the current system for the delivery of non-stocked wholesale product, identifying four possible scenarios that will be re-evaluated once the recommended changes to the distribution centre are finalized. Deloitte’s final report can be found here.
The assessments of LDB’s distribution centre in Delta and process for managing NSWP were ordered as the result of recommendations made to government by BTAP in 2018. Its report can be found here.
The LDB is grateful to those customers and stakeholders who contributed input and feedback as part of this review.
If you have any questions about the review or these changes, please contact the Stakeholder Relations team at communications@bcldb.com.