If you’ve ever scanned a local business directory, chances are, by the time you got to the Cs, you started to notice a trend: the outsized number of local companies bearing some version of the “Coast Mountain” moniker in their name. From builders to breweries, accounting firms to outdoor schools, it is one of, if not the most popular brand name in the corridor.
“Yeah, but did any of those companies incorporate in 1977? Didn’t think so,” joked Matt Woods, president and director of construction and snow-removal company, Coastal Mountain Excavations (CME).
Woods said CME was “100-per-cent” the first company in the Sea to Sky with the Coastal Mountain name when it was launched in Whistler 45 years ago, and, while he’d like to trace the name to an epic origin story, the truth is a little less sexy.
“When you go in to pick your name and register your business, you throw in three to five options and you get what you get,” he explained. “It’s just where we live. Simple geographics.”
That tracks with what other brands said about the name. While admittedly not the most creative of trade names, it hits on the inherent cache of the region and mountain range that stretches from southwestern Yukon down along nearly the entirety of the B.C. coast to the Fraser River.
“I just feel it’s synonymous with this corridor. When people think of the Coast Mountains, this is where they think about,” said Andrew Ellott, co-founder of Pemberton-based licenced marijuana producer, Coast Mountain Cannabis.
When your business is producing and shipping world-renowned B.C. bud not only to Canada, but international markets in Europe and Australia as well (anticipated for later this year), linking your brand to the region makes sense from a marketing perspective.
“For me, as a brand, it left no doubt as to the origins of the company, its pedigree, and its provenance, if you like. It’s like Bordeaux being known for Bordeaux wine,” added Ellott. “We felt it important to identify where we’re located as opposed to a random brand name that doesn’t tell you about the provenance of the brand. We’ve got something to brag about, so it’s important to get the name into the brand.”
Kevin Winter, co-owner of Whistler’s Coast Mountain Brewing, had a few brand-name options on the go before he opened the award-winning microbrewery out of Function Junction. One of the original monikers he had in mind was “The Beer Studio,” a nod to the brewery’s penchant for experimentation and inventive, small-batch beers. But, looking at the Sea to Sky’s other longstanding brewhouses with geographic titles (as well as a timely cease-and-desist letter), Winter decided to go with Coast Mountain.
“It was really us looking at Whistler Brewing Company and Howe Sound Brewing and trying to find ourselves on a would-be menu where a tourist might like to drink,” Winter said. “It was about fitting in to a mountain town and appealing to the tourists, but also something the locals would buy into as a brand that felt like it belonged here.”
Coast Mountain Brewing is no stranger to the sometimes-prickly process of naming rights. Even before it opened its doors in late 2016, the brewery—then operating under the name, “Sea to Sky Brewery”—was slapped with a cease-and-desist letter from multinational giant Molson Coors, which had just acquired the trademark for “Sea to Sky.” Rather than fight the world’s third-largest brewer and its army of lawyers in a protracted legal battle, Winter decided to go back to the drawing board.
Thankfully, Jamie Finlayson wasn’t met with the same pushback when he incorporated Coastal Mountain Custom Homes back in 2010. Longtime friends with the Woods family that is behind Coastal Mountain Excavations, Finlayson admitted the CME brand didn’t come to mind until after the name had been settled on.
“We joke about it a little bit. I didn’t even think of them when we had the name approved,” said owner and principal Finlayson with a laugh. “I’m not sure they were that happy about it, but we were based out of Squamish until two years ago, so it was less of an issue.”
Since then, Coastal Mountain Custom Homes has officially rebranded as CMC Homes to help differentiate it in the market.
“Over the years, we get confused with CME at Rona with stuff put on the wrong account. So, we’re just trying to create a different identity under the same name,” Finlayson added.
For those keeping tabs at home, among the other “Coast Mountain” brands in the corridor are: Coast Mountain Veterinary Clinic in Whistler, Coast Mountain Accounting in Pemberton, and Coast Mountain Academy in Squamish. Outside of the corridor, there is Coast Mountain Bus Company in Surrey, Coast Mountain College in Terrace, and outdoor recreation retailer, Coast Mountain Sports in Whitehorse, Yukon.
“Sometimes I think I’m more flattered than not,” Woods said of the proliferation of Coast Mountain brand names since CME launched in the ’70s. “Not that I think anybody goes, ‘Coastal Mountain, that’s a cool name, cool company, I think I’ll name our brand after that.’ I don’t think it’s that at all.”
