American Canning will be expanding operations in a new facility with the addition of an environmentally conscious, aluminum can manufacturing plant and second shrink-sleeve line.
Set to be operational in the spring of 2022, their new headquarters signifies growth and welcomed change for America’s craft beverage producers.
American Canning made beverage packaging supplies accessible to a broader market by introducing e-commerce in 2018 and helped producers pivot to packaged sales when the world shut down in 2020. They are prepared to bring necessary changes to the market again, announcing plans to begin manufacturing 12oz aluminum cans in the coming year.
David Racino, co-founder and CEO of American Canning, says, “Large can makers do what they do very well—scale and efficiency. That requires their customers to have long-term forecasts, substantial production runs, and sophisticated supply chain operations. That is simply not something all small and upstart beverage companies have. We want to build a more modern ecosystem that allows those brands and organizations to thrive.”
American Canning will transition to their new 155,000 square foot facility in early 2022, giving them three times more capacity for machine manufacturing and supply distribution of blank aluminum cans, ends, PakTech® and case trays.
The new space will dedicate 3,500 square feet to a second shrink-sleeve line focused on specialty can sizes that will increase production to more than 1.5 million cans per week. The line will be operational for 2022’s peak canning season.
To supplement shrink-sleeve production, Racino said American Canning has envisioned expanding into lower-volume printed cans for several years.
“Craft has experienced many changes in market dynamics, most recently with the can shortage. In 2020, we saw that coming out of this, craft producers’ needs would still be overwhelmingly unsupported,” said Racino. “To continue to service our growing client base, it became clear we needed to create our own supply.”
Racino and his co-founder, Mike Daniel, began conversations with Toyo Seikan in the fall of 2020. As a global leader in packaging manufacturing, Toyo Seikan has produced aluminum cans with proven, innovative design practices that focus on lowering environmental impact for over 40 years.
“The way we are designing our plant is somewhat inside-out from a traditional approach,” said Racino. “We started by looking at the needs of craft and set out to solve accessibility for a larger number of customers. Many producers don’t need millions of cans at a time; we want to provide some assurance around availability of cans at low volumes.”
Initially, 12oz aluminum cans will be manufactured, with plans to add 16oz cans quickly thereafter, moving towards 300 million cans per year. This expansion is beginning in early 2022, with manufacturing scheduled to start in August.
