“Hundreds of millions” of aluminum cans could be available annually to craft brewers starting this fall, via G3 Enterprises, a Modesto, California-based beverage logistics and supply company.
Waterbird Spirits, the Charlottesville, Virginia-headquartered spirits maker, which specializes in canned ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, is the first beverage-alcohol brand in the country to use resealable lids on 24 oz. single-serve cans, effectively opening up the convenience store channel more widely to spirits-based RTDs.
Molson Coors is in the process of a packaging refresh for Keystone Light, chief legal officer Anne-Marie D’Angelo shared with the company’s distributor partners in a memo Tuesday afternoon. The company shared plans for the packaging refresh just days after a jury awarded Stone Brewing Company $56 million in its long-simmering trademark infringement lawsuit against Molson Coors.
Ready-to-drink canned cocktails (RTDs) will continue to grow, and supply chain constraints will persist for at least the next six months, executives from alcohol importer MHW predicted Wednesday during a webinar.
Cans reached their highest-ever share of Brewers Association-defined (BA) packaged craft beer sold at off-premise retailers in 2021, according to a report from chief economist Bart Watson.
“Bigger is better” is the motto this year for Asheville, North Carolina-based Hi-Wire Brewing, and they have the cans to back it up.
Headwinds have converged to create an unfavorable environment for craft breweries seeking to package their beer in aluminum cans, which now make up about 60% of independent craft beer packaged volume, according to the Brewers Association (BA), a trade group representing the nation’s small and independent brewers. With 2021 coming to a close, Brewbound spoke leaders at American Canning, WildPack Beverages, and DWS Printing gauge how they are navigating these currents.
Craft Beverage Warehouse (CBW), a Milwaukee-based beverage packaging distributor, is making a $4 million investment to begin offering digital can printing to craft beverage companies in 2022.
A new aluminum can making and filling production facility is slated to begin operations in Salt Lake City during the fourth quarter of 2021. Co-packing facility Vobev will launch with a focus on the popular slim (sleek) can production of 12 oz. (355 mL) and 8.4 oz. (250 mL) in a beverage industry crunched by demand and shortages of aluminum receptacle.
New Mexico’s Santa Fe Brewing has placed a renewed focus on “local” to connect with its core consumers in its home market.
Atlanta Brewing Company appointed Alton Shields as the Georgia craft brewery’s new president and general manager last month.
Great Lakes Brewing, the 35-year-old Ohio craft brewery, recently underwent a self-reflection: “How do we continue to attract new consumers, when many of today’s drinkers were in diapers at our brewery’s founding?”
Ball Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum beverage cans, will continue to allocate inventory to customers and import cans from overseas due to short supply throughout this summer, executive vice president and chief financial officer Scott C. Morrison said yesterday during a public session of the Deutsche Bank Global Basic Materials Conference. “In the Northern Hemisphere, both in Europe and U.S. we’ll be on allocation again this summer,” he said. “We’re coming into this summer in North America extremely tight on inventory.”
The strains on the packaging supply chain that supports the beer industry are showing no sign of letting up. Demand for aluminum cans has far outpaced supply as at-home consumption spiked with the pandemic-forced closure of the on-premise channel last year, and that same rise in home use has also driven up the cost of cardboard packaging.
