Gryphon Alumni Steve Keyzer Creates “Gin & Sonic”

 When Steve Keyzer looks back at the four years he spent as a member of Gryphon Football, one word comes to mind – perseverance. Keyzer’s student-athlete journey began in 2002 when the Orillia, ON native came to training camp and quickly learned there was a mountain of work ahead of him. The players were big and unforgiving, only happy to dish out punishment on the field. Keyzer recalls about 200 guys coming to that camp before the annual attrition that weeds out those who can’t take it.

“That’s imbedded in me,” says the 37-year-old former slot receiver, who now has a thriving career as a reaI estate broker and entrepreneur. “I learned that in university sport, you commit to something that you want to be a part of and that it takes hard work over months and years to build something great.”

Almost two decades later, the husband and father of a 14-month-old boy is living that mantra. After completing his Marketing Management degree in four years, he moved to his current home Toronto and worked a couple of years at Cossette Communications, a well-known marketing agency. But Keyzer found himself reading books about investing in commercial real estate so he made the career switch. He’s spent the last 12 years at Colliers International and is now a Senior Vice President in charge of a team that focuses on urban land transactions.

Keyzer loves utilizing his experience gained as both a player and a student at the University of Guelph. And it’s come in handy again as he’s branched out and started a new business. Keyzer has entered the beverage world with a product that’s already been a huge hit at the LCBOs. Gin & Sonic, an increasingly popular canned alcoholic beverage, is what he calls his “side hustle.”

“It’s what I like to drink,” Keyzer says, of the refreshing mixture of gin, soda, and tonic. “I talked with an IP lawyer I knew and asked if we could trademark ‘Gin & Sonic.’

“Then I started talking with friends in the drink industry.”

After working on the IP since early 2017, Keyzer then gathered a team and made a pitch to the LCBO in 2018. The provincial body loved the concept but the actual product needed tweaking so it wasn’t initially accepted. Keyzer made changes to both his personnel and the actual recipe, ultimately presenting three different liquids to the LCBO the following year.

In October 2019, Gin & Sonic got the green light and was one of the few selected from over 600 applications.

“Everything we planned on paper, we now had to execute,” says Keyzer. “It’s a lot of work – compliance, artwork, ingredients, sourcing cans. It’s amazing what goes into putting a beverage together.

“We only had four months to get going. We were producing the final liquid by mid-February.”

Keyzer’s Gin & Sonic has 70 per cent less sugar than a traditional gin and tonic and 60 fewer calories. That combination seems to have resonated with LCBO customers.

“The response has been overwhelming regarding the taste,” he says. “You have people saying, ‘I’m not typically a gin drinker but this is awesome!’ It’s the right amount of sweetness. Traditionally in the LCBO, you have really sweet drinks that do well or zero sugar drinks. We’re right in the middle in terms of sugar or slightly lower.

“Our whole strategy with the LCBO was to bet on what we called the ‘missing middle.’”

Keyzer feels pride that this Toronto-born company has had some immediate success. It’s manufactured at a facility in East York and most importantly, is a great product based on the initial booming sales. The company has trademarks in Canada, the USA, and the UK, with Australia in the works. So the plan is to grow quickly.

“We’re not saying goodbye to the gin and tonic – we’re just making it more current,” Keyzer says. “We have global aspirations.”

The roots of Gin & Sonic were planted almost 20 years ago when a young Keyzer arrived in Guelph. Throughout those four years in Gryphon Football, he embraced the hard work and challenges. It paid off in the classroom and on the field, too, like when he hauled in a pass from Matt Bryans for Guelph’s first playoff touchdown in years during a 2004 playoff game in Ottawa, one of his favourite memories.

Keyzer cherishes and still maintains the many friendships he built in Guelph and the camaraderie he experienced being part of a team. He sometimes wishes he had returned for a fifth year but his career to date suggests he’s made the right decisions, including the latest one to take a risk in the competitive beverage industry.

It was that perseverance he learned as a Gryphon that helped make it a reality.

“My gut was telling me this could be big,” says Keyzer. “I just had to keep pushing to make it happen.”

Visit https://ginsonic.com/ or go to ginsonic on Instagram to learn more.

Written By: David Dicenzo