Paul Fallen, managing director of Fallen Brewing Company
Fallen Brewing has become one of the first craft breweries in Scotland to install a canning line and move its entire beer range into cans.
Managing director, Paul Fallen, said: “We’ve always wanted to produce the best quality beers for customers to enjoy. We decided to invest in our own canning line as we believe that having control of the entire production process gives us the best chance of producing great beers.”
Fallen invested in an ABE canning line called the Craft Can 15 (supplied by Vigo Ltd), which has an output rate of 900 cans per hour, while also constructing a new building and installing new tanks to double capacity.
Paul said: “It’s a massive step change in the way we work. We’ve been expanding rapidly since we started production in 2014, but we had reached a critical mass due to our laborious work processes. Fifty per cent of our revenue was through bottle sales, but the production was a highly labour intensive and time consuming process. We really needed to automate our small pack production to continue to grow.
“We believe that a good proportion of growth is going to come from small pack cans. Keg and cask is growing, too, but not at the same rate. So, we weighed up the benefits of can versus bottle — it was a big decision and a huge investment.
“In the end, the decision to move production to cans was straightforward. There will always be a place for bottles in the marketplace, but for us the practicalities of cans as vessels for holding and transporting beer made them the obvious choice. They keep the beer fresher for longer, they’re light, efficient to stack, easy to recycle and more robust than glass bottles.
“All of which means we can store more, ship more and reduce our carbon footprint when doing so, and at the end of the supply chain the drinker gets a fresher, better quality product to enjoy.”
