Today’s Press Herald reports on changes in wholesale beer can supply market that are impacting Maine brewers.
All of that has created a growing demand for craft beers in 16-ounce cans and strained the segment’s primary supplier, Pennsylvania-based Crown Holdings. Normally, beer can suppliers deliver a minimum order of 155,000 cans – the payload of a conventional 18-wheeler. But Crown, a metal can manufacturer, developed a niche business catering to those small brewers who only needed half-truck orders.
A few months ago, word started trickling out that Crown would no longer offer half-truck orders, and was dropping some customers entirely – even if they ordered full truckloads.