LCBO strike won’t mean a dry summer in London, Ont.

Some local producers of beer, wine, and liquor are taking a wait-and-see approach to the LCBO strike.

At Storm Stayed Brewing Company, Co-owner Justin Belanger hopes some new customers will turn to the retail stores at local craft breweries.

“We hope that, while the strike is happening, people will enjoy some local craft beer. (There’s) ourselves and about six other breweries in town,” Belanger tells CTV News.

All 669 LCBO stores in Ontario closed on Friday.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) said contract talks broke down with the Crown Corporation, sending more than 9,000 workers to the picket line.

A lot of local craft brewers, including Storm Stayed, sell some of their products at the LCBO, so the impact of the strike could be a double edged sword.

“The LCBO accounts for about 15 per cent of our production, so it will have an impact on how much product we are moving out of our door,” Belanger says. “I'm not sure how that will affect our sales numbers themselves.”

Belanger hopes sales at the brewery will offset some of the financial impact of the strike.

Although there was a lot of time to prepare for the LCBO’s indefinite shutdown, he hasn’t altered his production plan for the summer.

“We’ve been regarding it as business as usual from the production standpoint, but that being said, it is summertime, and so our production is a bit more elevated than it typically is in the wintertime.”