After revealing a refreshed brand image with the launch of its new 12 oz. cans in March, San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing yesterday unveiled similarly-styled designs on its 22 oz. and 12 oz. bottles.
“We’ve been working on the redesign of our bottles for almost a year and a half,” said Earl Kight, Ballast Point’s vice president of marketing and sales. “Our artist, Paul Elder, repainted all of the artwork that is now featured on the labels.”
The new packaging will roll out across Ballast Point’s entire distribution footprint — one that’s grown in 2013 to include Illinois, Idaho, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and Colorado — later this month.
“We’ve only been in Chicago for two months, but it has been a solid two months,” said Kight, estimating that Ballast Point’s wholesaler, Wirtz Beverage, has already sold over 7,000 case-equivalents.
Ballast Point will add five 200-barrel fermentation tanks in September, allowing the company to begin producing 100,000-barrels per year. Kight said he expects total production volumes to eclipse 75,000 barrels in 2013, up from 47,000 last year, and attributed much of the growth to the addition of cans and the company’s push into chain accounts.
“Sales of Sculpin cans are off the charts and we are just beginning to send them to additional markets outside of San Diego,” he said, noting that Texas, North Carolina and Chicago markets will soon have the aluminum packages.
Ballast Point recently earned retail placements for its 6-packs of Sculpin in Safeway, Kroger and the Southern California-based Stater Bros. Markets. Kight also told Brewbound that at the request of Safeway, the company began developing a mixed 12-pack which will include three core offerings, most likely Sculpin, Calico, and Pale Ale. The company is targeting an October launch date for the new SKU.