CANNING A BARRIER TO ENTRY FOR CRAFT BREWING Back in the beginning, Leslie realized that canning was a barrier to entry to craft brewing due to the fact that canning lines were expensive. The company began by purchasing a mobile unit to share the canning costs. But the team quickly realized that an even bigger barrier was the can itself, in terms of the large minimum orders required, along with storage space and cash flow. “We quickly pivoted into a flexible labeling solution, with the shrink sleeve and the pressure sensi - tive label, which basically allows you to bring down the minimum order quantities and have a more flexible offering,” said Leslie. That allowed the independent breweries options for canning different types of beer. The business continued to evolve over six years and now offers printed cans, trays, packaging and carriers for the cans. “We have everything from the ability to fill all the way through to the cans, the lid, the trays and carriers in which they’re carried in liquor stores,” said Leslie. “ We have everything from the ability to fill all the way through to the cans, the lid, the trays and carriers in which they’re carried in liquor stores,”
“We can sell cans and services from all the way west to all the way east and to the territories in the North,” said Leslie. With locations in Van- couver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa & Montreal, Vessel has positioned themselves as a nation- wide service, offering their packaging services no matter what stage the customer is in. Vessel also offers some services in the US. As you might expect, there were challenges in bringing together a team of 75 people across four different operating facilities and uniting them under one roof. Each company had its own internal culture and employee loyalty. “It was important for us to keep a lot of those good things that made us what we were with the great people that we had. We worked with the team to ensure that we are still all working toward the same goal – now we’re all operating with the same kind of badge on our chest,” said Leslie. Public perception of themerger was another chal- lenge after the rebrand. “It’s tough to communi- cate the truth to everyone off the bat - no matter how much you prepare. From a corporate struc- ture nothing changed – all those people were still there. Lots of people thought that perhaps we got bought or we were no longer here. There was definitely that kind of public perception of things had changed when they hadn’t. It was just a constant reinforcement of the message that we’ve just gotten better. We’ve changed the name, but we’ve tried to bring everything under one roof and really share on the good things that we do” said Leslie.
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JUNE 2020 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2020
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