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Mar 24, 2023

Mobile Canning vs In

In the early days of America’s craft beer revival, cans were not the preferred

In the early days of America's craft beer revival, cans were not the preferred package and mobile canning was new to the industry, but much has changed over the years. Cans are now the preferred package in the industry and mobile canning has become a proven and wildly accepted service option. Many brewers approach the choice between mobile and an in-house canning line from the belief that high quality packaging and lower costs require owning a canning line and managing the packaging process in-house. A possible error in this rationale is perception is not always reality and is often a stronger influencer than it should be when making decisions. The opinion that an outsourced service provider is more costly and could not possibly be as committed to quality-of-service delivery as the producer who is doing it themselves, is not always reality. In this article, we hope to explore the right questions you should be asking yourself in order to make an effective decision, rather than just working off a narrative that could lay a path to a poor assessment.

We’ll review higher level business considerations such as capital expenditure and opportunity costs of canning line investment, the cost of insourcing beyond equipment that should be considered when comparing to a mobile service rate, and the importance of quality control. As you read, please weigh the perceived benefits of in-housing a canning line with reasons why others feel that using a quality mobile service is better for their operation.

Perceived Benefits of Insourcing your Canning Operation:

Decision Maker's Reasons for Outsourcing with a Quality Mobile Service:

Business Strategy

Packaging is not glamorous or particularly rewarding. People don't buy a canned beverage because they know that the business packaged it themselves, they buy it because of the quality of the product and the impression of the taproom or marketing by the brand. A business can save on capital expenditure and stay lean, mean, and nimble when they don't have to worry about running a packaging line. Not having a canning line in the production space also means more space to grow. "Space that a modern, urban brewery could be using for another tank, or a centrifuge, or lab equipment that will help them produce a higher volume or quality of beer, in a shorter amount of time, so as to meet growing demand." Why have a piece of equipment that runs only once a week (or less) take up so much valuable space?

When thinking about purchasing a canning line, dependability also comes into play. Perceptions aren't reality and employee turnover and skill need to be considered. A service provider will have the skilled staff as well as additional resources and redundancies to make sure your liquid gets into a can. Finally, opportunity costs to the business need to be taken into account. If you choose to go with a service provider, that will free up resources for other areas of the business; increased sales opportunities and infrastructure, added capabilities, production efficiencies or capacity gains through tanks, process efficiency, or elimination of other production bottlenecks. A quality mobile canner's end goal is to be your complete canning infrastructure; they will provide customer support, an insulated supply chain, a flexible schedule, and qualified operators.

Costs Beyond the Canning Line

When you purchase a canning line, that's all you’re purchasing, a piece of equipment. Once purchased you will need to pay for the crate, freight, and installation, as well as insurance in case anything happens. When the canning line is set up and taking up valuable brewery space, you’ll need to staff it with at least two operators and then two to three additional employees to work pack out as the cans come off the line. Operation of a canning line is a skilled position. Training and experience are required for filling accuracy, Dissolved Oxygen (DO) minimization, and loss minimization. When a staff member quits, the training process starts all over again. What about supplies? Someone will either need to take up the additional job of logistics and sourcing cans, case trays, and other supplies, or that would be a whole new role for a new hire.

Naturally, you also want to make sure that the beverage that's getting put into the can is the best it can possibly be, so that will mean purchasing a DO meter, seam evaluation equipment, a labeler, a date coder, and/or a nitro-doser if you want to package still products. Finally, there is the maintenance of the canning line itself. Seamers are the most complicated and most ignored part of a canning machine. They are also the most important part. The seamer components have a lifespan and need to be replaced or refurbished after 1 year or 1 million seams. Soft parts need to be replaced regularly and when the canning line needs repairs or maintenance, you may need to pay for a tech to come out and repair it which could lead to the potential loss of product as well as downtime and loss of sales. In the end, you’re looking at roughly $145,000 of additional spending per year.

The Importance of Quality Control

Quality control means that the best possible version of your product gets into the hands of your customer. If you believe that quality will be improved through insourcing, that perception should be tested and verified by regular inhouse audits and quality checks. Packaging is the gatekeeper to your brand and quality issues are costly. Much of this has to do with the experience and skill of the operator. When outsourcing with a mobile service provider you should have a long-term partner which guarantees their quality and stands behind their policies regarding loss and DO minimization. There should be seam and sanitation guarantees along with standard operating procedures in place, in addition to supporting infrastructure in engineering, quality, and supply chain staff.

A mobile service provider should have their own lab, a product archive in place, training programs for all staff, and job reporting so that the customer knows the details of their canning run. Mobile canners do this job every day and so they are more committed to the quality of the product, not less. If something goes sideways on canning day, working with a service provider also means that you have a partner that will make an issue right versus having to bear the entire burden yourself. Knowledgeable staff will be able to recommend various solutions to the issue and be able to adjust the machine on the fly to make sure that you have as few stops as possible on canning day.

In conclusion, the preconceived notions about mobile canning and in-sourcing your packaging are just not true. During the 2020 pandemic, mobile canning is what kept many breweries alive when taprooms had to close down and to-go beers were the only options. The service additionally allows you to package special edition limited-release beverages, mixed culture products, or beverages for special events like concerts, festivals, and fairs. The costs beyond owning a canning line can be significant, and the end product from a quality mobile canner is just as good, if not better, than an in-house operation. Packaging is the gatekeeper of your brand, and you want to make sure that your final packaged product tastes exactly how you want it to taste.

Sources:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/food-drink/a33647813/mobile-canning/

https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5710/7/1/14

https://www.northjersey.com/story/food/2021/01/08/nj-breweries-like-clifton-nj-ghost-hawk-adapting-canning-beer/6511175002/

https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2018/10/25/the-revolution-will-not-be-bottled-how-mobile-canning-brought-us-closer-to-beer