What is the packaging process like, Matt, and what are the advantages for craft brewers? ML: All of our packaging is done on-site at the client’s brewery – that’s where we do all of the actual canning. We do all the shrink-sleeving at our 25,000 square feet facility, which is what takes up most of the room, and the rest of the process is mobile. We take the finished product, the sleeve can, load it into the truck with our mobile canning line with our day coder, our dissolved oxygen tester, and two of our guys will roll up to the brewery then set-up and sanitize. They’ll then hook-up to the tank where the beer has been conditioned and cooled and then we go to town. They’ll perform quality control throughout the canning run to ensure that everything is packaged to the highest industry standards. When the order is done we shut it down, clean it up, load it back on the truck and get ready for the next day’s run. The canning process always has the potential to go horribly wrong. You can ruin a whole batch of beer that had nothing wrong with it to begin with. That’s why we’ve continually worked on bringing in people, partners, who care as much as we do. We want people working with us who find it just as fulfilling as we do every day, no pun intended. If they’re out there and they’re not enjoying it, it’s not fair to them or to the people who own the brewery. We’ve had some busy summers where our staff has worked some really long hours so you really have to enjoy it! Another important thing to consider is that whole mobile approach allows breweries to maintain their footprint without having to invest in bigger space for their own canning line; it allows them to invest more money in more equipment to brew more beer, which is what most craft breweries need to be doing in the initial stages especially. Investing in an expensive piece of equipment that you’re only going to use once a month doesn’t make a lot of sense – it restricts growth. Speaking of partners and growth, do you care to share with the readers any details about your latest big move in the industry?
side. Just one year after we opened we brought in our second canning line and we brought in the third in late 2017 and the fourth this year with our operation in Calgary. We also upgraded our shrink sleever last year and we have a brand new one coming in mid-February that will have a much higher output. Beer isn’t your only speciality at West Coast Canning is it? ML: Beer is probably 98 percent of what we do. Cider is next. Craft cider is a market that’s growing quickly in terms of volume and demand but it has a long way to go to catch up to beer. “They want someone who cares as much about the business and about craft beer as they do – and that’s us. They’re basically giving us their “baby” and asking us to wrap it up.” We’ve done a few types of RTD, ready-to- drink beverages like a Palm Bay sort of mixture, and we’ve done some cold brew coffees. These sorts of volumes are usually quite small and we can package them in about 20 minutes.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2018
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