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.
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.
Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson explored why draft beer sales have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels in his latest members’ only analysis.
Iron Heart Canning has added new warehouses in Chicago and Springfield, Massachusetts, bringing its total number of warehouses to 25 throughout New England, the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwest.
The Brewers Association (BA) is urging the Can Manufacturing Institute (CMI) to ensure that small and independent craft brewers have access to aluminum cans amid the years-long inventory crunch beverage producers are now facing. In a letter to the CMI, BA president and CEO Bob Pease painted a dire picture for the nation’s nearly 8,400 craft brewers. “These businesses will simply not survive that long without cans,” he wrote.
San Francisco-based Anchor Brewing opted to give itself a makeover as a 125th birthday gift. Ballast Point has revealed new packaging art that has already begun rolling out to retailers. Granbury, Texas-based Revolver Brewing will roll out new artwork for its core offerings this spring. Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Blue Point Brewing debuted a new logo and branding that will replace art that the Patchogue, New York-based craft brewery has been using for four years.
Can inventory nationwide has tightened, due to the seismic shift in beer sales from on-premise draft to off-premise package since the COVID-19 pandemic began. “Sixteen ounce cans are going to be a problem this summer,” David Racino, co-founder and CEO of Austin, Texas-based American Canning, told Brewbound.
For its second quarter-century, Cisco Brewers is debuting a new look and two new beers. The Nantucket, Massachusetts-based brand, which was acquired by Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) in 2018, has refreshed its branding and packaging with the launch of a new summer seasonal offering, Summer Rays golden ale, and a new year-round New England-style IPA,… Read more »
