The Client was planning a major expansion of its can-processing capabilities to support approximately 10 million case equivalents of annual growth across beer, RTDs, seltzers, wine, and other beverage categories. While the existing facility provided potential expansion opportunities, warehouse capacity, layout constraints, and increasing variety-pack requirements created significant operational challenges. Leadership needed a clear understanding of the packaging assets, facility modifications, and capital investment required to support future growth while maintaining flexibility across multiple beverage formats.
First Key developed a comprehensive packaging expansion roadmap linking production growth targets to equipment requirements, facility constraints, and capital planning needs. The team evaluated packaging demand, line-speed requirements, variety-pack complexity, space utilization, and warehouse impacts to determine the optimal processing strategy. This analysis identified the need for a high-speed canning platform, a dedicated variety-pack operation, and supporting facility modifications while quantifying the capital required to achieve future growth objectives.
The resulting analysis provided leadership with an investment-ready roadmap that aligned packaging capacity, facility requirements, warehouse strategy, and capital planning to support long-term growth.
• Established a preliminary capital investment roadmap totaling approximately $21.2 million, providing a clear basis for board-level planning and funding decisions.
• Defined a 1,000 CPM canning line capable of supporting the Client’s target of 10 million annual case equivalents across multiple beverage categories.
• Identified a 400 to 1,440 CPM variety-pack solution, providing scalable flexibility across pack sizes from 4-packs to 24-packs while supporting growing assortment complexity.
• Determined that as much as 75% of total plant output could require variety-pack staging, highlighting a critical warehousing constraint and strengthening the business case for expanded logistics capabilities.
• Developed phased facility layout concepts that preserved future expansion flexibility while reducing implementation and capital-execution risk.
• Identified the impact of packaging expansion on finished-goods storage, enabling the Client to proactively align production, warehousing, and distribution strategies.
