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Ontario’s northernmost brewery, Lake of the Woods Brewing Company has been making beer in a converted firehouse in Kenora since 2013. An instant success, the communities of Northwestern Ontario from Fort Frances to Red Lake to Thunder Bay quickly embraced the company and its beer. Demand was high and Lake of the Woods Brewing Company began expanding almost as soon as it opened and now in addition to its flagship location in Kenora has taprooms and breweries in downtown Winnipeg and Warroad, Minnesota, with a second Kenora location on the way.
Doing business in Northwestern Ontario can come with a unique set of challenges. Like Lake of the Woods Brewing Company, Tbaytel is a homegrown business that understands what it takes to thrive in the region and create the custom solutions its clients need.
“What’s nice is that they have been proactive in reaching out to find out what our current needs are, to see if they are being met and to find out where we are headed” says Taras Manzie, President and CEO.
Lake of the Woods Brewing Company has always embraced technology in its business and in the early days used a large, expensive server-based system to meet its needs. But as technology advanced, the company was able to integrate even more into the operation transitioning to almost entirely web-based services resulting in a significant reduction in overhead costs and greater control over the operation.
Recently, Tbaytel launched its Fibre service in Kenora. “Lightning fast connectivity is a game-changer,” says Taras, “it allows us to put bigger loads on the network and have multiple networks on the same feed. It also allows us to provide internet access to our customers so they can enjoy themselves in the taproom.”
In 2022, virtually all businesses need an IT solution of some kind but for businesses who have fully-embraced web-based technologies like Lake of the Woods Brewing Company, the need for reliable, fast internet service is imperative.
“There’s a lot of moving parts to our company” says Taras.
“There are different locations and a lot of coordination that is required and we couldn’t do many of the things that we do without constant connectivity. Our information systems are all web-based so they can be accessed from anywhere and utilized on the fly. We have apps on our phones that we can check inventory with. Our sales folks on the road are constantly using solutions that require connectivity. Our brewing systems as well, both for monitoring and for actual brewing. All of our finance and admin is done with web-based technology and a number of our folks work remotely - from Kenora, from Thunder Bay, from Winnipeg, even Kelowna. We couldn’t do any of this without stable connectivity and internet service we can count on.”
“Having Tbaytel Fibre service in Kenora is instrumental in allowing Lake of the Woods Brewing Company to grow, but also in allowing the community to grow and to be able to thrive.”

Contact our Business Sales team today at 1-866-999-0626 or visit tbaytel.net/business