In this episode:
Iron Heart Canning founder and CEO Tyler Willie’s path to a mobile canning empire started like many others in the craft brewing business. He was a home brewer with dreams of starting his own brewery.
But once he discovered mobile canning seven years ago, he trashed his plans to open a brewery in Norwalk, Connecticut, and put a deposit down on his first mobile canning line.
“There’s a brewery opening every day with a lot of talented people making beer,” he said. “Do I really want to be competing against these people or working with them?”
For Willie, the answer was the latter. On this week’s episode of the Brewbound Podcast, he shares how he pieced together his East Coast mobile canning business — including making multiple acquisitions that covers from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean.
Although Willie hadn’t planned for Iron Heart to expand at the time of the interview, the company made another deal recently for Michigan Mobile Canning that will take the company’s business to the Midwest.
“Over the last four years since we’ve been merging with the other mobile canning companies, it’s been a major effort for us to get consistency,” he said. “That’s been the biggest challenge so far.
“Our goal is we don’t want to be the best mobile canner out there, we want to be the best canner period out there,” he continued. “We want to offer quality and expertise above what any brewery can do on their own.”
Willie also discusses how beyond beer products are becoming a bigger part of Iron Heart’s business, his strategy for meeting his clients’ needs, the challenges of the business and much more.
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Show Highlights:
Iron Heart Canning founder and CEO Tyler Willie’s path to a mobile canning empire started like many others in the craft brewing business. He was a home brewer with dreams of starting his own brewery.
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The Brewbound Podcast is an extension of Brewbound’s leading B2B beer industry reporting, featuring interviews with beer industry executives and entrepreneurs, along with highlights and commentary from the weekly news.
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