• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The daily commute into the bustling financial district of New York City can prove inspiring on a number of different levels. Watching the wheels of industry and high finance turn can truly motivate. Tyler Wille was working for a major financial institution in the Big Apple. But his passion resided outside of the walls of high finance.
He wanted to start a brewery.
However, Wille’s analytical mind wouldn’t allow him to just plunge in head first without looking at start-up costs, overhead, business cycles and other financial hurdles. One thing was certain — the craft beer industry was on the upswing. So why not service the industry he loved. Colorado caught his attention, where the craft beer industry had been in full swing for quite some time, and observed how the canning sector was reaping the benefits of the craft movement. Spotlight on Business Magazine spoke with Iron Heart Canning’s current President, Joe Marston about Wille’s initial vision and the company’s beginnings, along with their unwavering commitment to quality. By John Allaire W ille noted after observing the Mid-west and West Coast industries that there was little if any equiv- alent mobile canning suppliers in the Northeast. themselves.”
One of the characteristics of the craft movement is that some of the more popular breweries have moved to the forefront of the craft industry and, in a way, are beginning to resemble macro-breweries in their production styles and volumes.
And with breweries popping up in the east at an alarming rate (and within close proximity to each other), mobile, on-site, beer canning made sense for new businesses without canning and packaging infrastructure in place. The day finally arrived in 2013 when Wille jumped ship out of the financial world and took his crew of one or two on the road across New England, canning craft beer with their new mobile canning line. Months passed and, as the business began to build, Wille found he couldn’t keep up with demand. So he added crews in Vermont and New Hamp- shire to relieve some of the pressure. However, the 2015 birth of his child led him to the reali- zation that he could no longer work 110 hours per week. Changes were in the offing, and Wille sold Iron Heart to private investors who brought in Joe Marston to manage operations. Wille remained on the company’s Board for a year, but returned to working operations in 2016. Marston is quick to point out that Wille’s dedication to quality resonates today with the company’s 17 satellite loca- tions and 33 canning lines. All-in- all, the company employs over 100 people. And their coverage map is expanding. “It certainly is a huge span of coverage compared to where we started,” Marston points out. “Our company feels large because of the coverage area.” Naturally, mobile canning lines service mainly smaller inde- pendent breweries. This means working with people and companies who have a wide and vastly differing range of needs and expectations. Marston explains, “We work with a hugely diverse group of people. You have mom and pop, father-son, husband-wife businesses. Or you might have investor-brewer relationships. That’s actually happening quite a bit right now where someone’s seeing a brewery as a great investment opportunity but aren’t the brewers
Marston explains that their needs are quite different from those of the smaller, family-run operations.
“Some of the small mom and pop businesses, I view those contracts as easier to relate to the people because you get to actually talk to and work with the owners. You can see their motivation right in front of you. You can actually get immediate feedback and figure out needs on the spot. That sometimes can get lost with larger companies. Our focus is always to offer the best possible service, regardless of size and volume.” He goes on to point out that there is a certain satisfaction to be gained from problem-solving and taking an active role in the packaging plans for, in many cases, new and inexperi- enced brewers. “We do know where we offer value, and for the smaller businesses who know nothing about canning or packaging their beer at all, we can really bring a lot to the table and help them grow their business and be successful. That’s a good feeling. We’re helping maybe a father and son who used to home brew for five years and decided to turn it into a business. They look to us to help them grow. That’s the stuff that keeps me going every day.” Quality service is obviously the key in maintaining the rela- tionships that Iron Heart Canning has developed with its customers. Marston points to personal experiences as being a motivator in quality assurance. “We’ve all had to deal with poor service at one time or another in our lives. We make sure we offer the best possible service by follow- ing up. We ask, we listen and we try to work hard to fulfill needs. If there’s anything a client wants done differently,
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FEBRUARY 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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