Fuelling growth with beverage innovations for your customers.

With changing consumer demands, a steady flow of new products can help your brewery stay ahead of the curve. First Key has the team, know-how and processes to deliver award-winning beverage innovations ranging from low alcohol beer, non-alcoholic beer, low carbohydrate beer, cider, kombucha, cannabis beverages, hard seltzers, distilled products, to other malt- and spirits-based ready to drink (RTD) beverages.

Our product innovation process is called KeyGate. It includes:

1. Feasibility. Our cross-functional team will work with you to assess the commercial, technical and financial impacts that each product innovation could have on your bottom line. We provide the qualitative and quantitative market research to generate sound sales projections, and assess the pricing, promotion and packaging strategies, while considering the specific dynamics of your market. We then analyze your current capabilities and provide the incremental operational, supply chain, and capital requirements to produce and distribute your new product. Quality, legal, and environmental risks and impacts are also assessed. The financial projections, timelines, and resource requirements are then generated to help you confidently determine next steps.

2. Design and Development. During this stage we can provide the following design and development services, while continuing to monitor overall project feasibility:

a. Recipe development and pilot trials – competitive analysis, pilot trials  and analysis, final recipe

b. Contract Brewing & Packaging – We will help you get brewing and packaging arrangements that work for you

c. Engineering – equipment layout, process flow diagrams (PFDs), piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), equipment selection and procurement, automation

d. Quality – sampling plans, specifications, analysis (microbiological, chemical, packaging, sensory)

3. Implementation. These services can by supported by either continuous on-site daily project management or regular site visits based on your requirements:

    a. Capital project management and equipment installation
    b. Equipment testing and commissioning
    d. Operations management – training and handover of quality, operating and maintenance procedures