David Bower, former president and CEO of Upland Brewing Co., spoke to Brewbound last month to discuss his new role as VP of sales for Wildpack Beverage, a national beverage co-packer and packaging supplier.
Bower was joined by Wildpack COO Chuck Zadlo. The two gave insights into the style and co-packing trends they are seeing among their beverage-alcohol clients, and how Wildpack is adapting to changes.
Moving From Upland to Wildpack
Bower joined Wildpack in May, following six years at Upland in Bloomington, Indiana. Prior to that, he spent two years as director of sales for Indianapolis, Indiana-based Sun King Brewing Co.
“I spent the last 10 years essentially as a target customer for Wildpack,” Bower told Brewbound. “So I know that mindset, I understand the challenges and opportunities of the Wildpack customer intimately.”
No one has yet to take over Bower’s position at Upland, as Bower said his former team has taken the helm “cumulatively as the new leader.”
“One of the reasons why I was able to make a smooth transition over is I was lucky enough to work with such a great team over those years, and collaboratively create an excellent group of people who are performing at a really high level, that I essentially worked myself out of a job,” Bower said. “I had all these great lieutenants, so I’ve handed the reins over to them.”
Upland produced 13,373 barrels in 2021, a +2% increase over 2020, in which the brewery recorded a -17% year-over-year production decline vs. 2019, according to the Brewers Association (BA).
Wildpack operates six manufacturing locations – Sacramento, California; Longmont, Colorado; Las Vegas, Nevada; Marietta, Georgia; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Baltimore, Maryland – and considers itself a “one-stop shop” for co-packing, packaging sales, sleeving and labeling, helped by the recent addition of in-house label printing earlier this year.
In the first six months in his new position, Bower will be focused on “fine tuning all the sales and service operations” of Wildpack, and use his sales experience to help create “the best customer experience possible.”
“Having that level of empathy and intimate knowledge of the pain points and opportunities of customers is an advantage,” Bower said. “It also helps to get the rest of the team up to speed a little bit faster; I can provide them the Cliff Notes of what it’s like to be in craft beer leadership for a decade, little bite-sized pieces at a time.
“My goal is to — and it’s already in place — but to continue to develop the overall team to be consultants,” he continued. “All of our sales and service people will share my perspective and have a great understanding of what the customer needs before they even ask for it.”
Wildpack Focused on Refined Growth After Accelerated 2021
Four of Wildpack’s six facilities were opened in 2021. Speaking to Brewbound last year, Zadlo said the company had “strong plans” to continue to grow in 2022, with more locations to come.
Now, while new opportunities are still being explored, there are no immediate plans to open new facilities.
“We have definitely slowed down our approach to acquisition; we are taking a breather,” Zadlo said. “But we are still looking at several businesses on the West Coast and in the Midwest, we also are looking in the state of Texas. If the right opportunity were to present itself, we would still be buyers.”
A Midwest acquisition or partnership is the most developed plan at the moment, Zadlo said. And while Wildpack “wouldn’t be interested in buying a brand, for example, at the moment,” they are open to opportunities that would “enhance [its] current capacity and offerings.”
Wildpack reported nearly $28.3 million in total revenue in 2021, with a gross profit of $1.6 million, according to its fiscal year earnings report. The company is projecting $75-$85 million in total revenue in 2022.
The company has made several adjustments to its sales and staffing structure since its founding in 2017. The company is “taking a hard look” at operations and “managing their cash flow very closely,” as “working capital and cash in the bank is king at the moment,” Zadlo said.
Asked if the company had to eliminate roles recently, Zadlo said they have had “from time to time, reduction enforced to right the workforce,” and have also “pivoted very quickly from one focus to another,” within its team, to understand “what we want to be as an organization, what’s our vision and mission, and how are those aligned to our core values.”
Bower said any changes are a “healthy exercise” and “just normal honing processes of a young company or startup.”
“You start with a huge block of marble, and you start shaving it down and you start to find the features of whatever it is you’re carving out, and you leave some marble, some substrate, in the process,” Bower said. “And that’s essentially what we’re doing, you’re getting a better understanding of who our customer is, what they need, the best way to serve them.”
Wildpack’s ‘What to Look Out For’: More RTDs, Loosened Domestic Can Supply, More Sleeved Cans
Zadlo and Bower also gave some insights into the trends they are seeing from Wildpack clients, those exploring using Wildpack’s services, and the general can market and supply chain.
Sleeved Cans Over Printed Cans; Domestic Can Supply Loosening
Zadlo noted a “strong demand for brokering of brite” cans – particularly from its Las Vegas and Grand Rapids facilities – and that “a lot of new breweries and cider companies” seeking out Wildpack’s services for innovation offerings are “moving into sleeves versus into printed cans.”
“We’re starting to see brites and sleeves from some breweries that I wouldn’t have expected,” Zadlo said. “That could be a result of minimum order quantities for printed cans, or there could be something else out there.”
This year, Ball, the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum beverage cans, increased its minimum order quantity for printed cans from one truckload (204,000 cans) to five truckloads (1,020,000 cans). It also announced it would no longer provide warehouse services to many of its customers.
Bower said the move to sleeved cans is due in-part to the current state of innovation within bev-alc, and the consumer focus on “what’s new,” combined with the new order minimums.
“The expected lifespan of seasonals and new innovation keeps getting shorter and shorter,” Bower said. “In order to get into a printed can, for some breweries, depending upon their velocity, it could be a few years worth of inventory to hit those minimums. And a few years is now a risky bet, because there’s so much turn and burn stylistically in the market.
“There’s also less loyalty to specific beverage categories,” he continued. “There’s an overwhelming demand for a lot of choice and not necessarily a lot of loyalty. So all of that ties back to the need for trying a lot of new things.”
There may also be a relief in aluminum can supply constraints in the country, Zadlo said, as “domestic supply has loosened.”
In 2021, Wildpack brokered cans through several companies, including Ball, Crown, Ardagh, as well as internationally through Envases. With growth in domestic can manufacturers, Zadlo said the company doesn’t need the international focus it previously had for its can supply, anymore.
There are also a lot of 12 oz. sleek cans on the market following the slowdown of the hard seltzer segment, should anyone want to take advantage, Zadlo added.
Innovation Led by RTDs, Hard Kombucha and Non-Alc
Ready-to-drink canned cocktail (RTD) growth is “very strong still,” Zadlo said. Roughly a third of Wildpack’s clients are RTD makers, such as High Noon, and a “significant portion of leads” for the company are RTDs, according to Zadlo.
Wildpack has also received inquiries for hard kombucha and non-alcoholic beer co-packing and other fermentation projects, which Zadlo said are “not in [Wildpack’s] wheelhouse yet.” However, “if it makes sense financially” in the future to bring on a client in those segments, Zadlo said “we would figure it out.”
“COVID, to some degree, fundamentally changed the way we consume beverages,” he added. “The convenience factor of canned formats and putting all these different beverage options in the can is just in the early stages”
Other beverage trends include the addition of “nootropics and adaptogenics” in beverages, including magnesium, caffeine, adaptogenic herbs and amino acids.
Previous coverage on Wildpack’s services available here.