Something that Huff-Po has posted today. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-warren/crown-beer-cans_b_6507032.html Enjoy.
Interesting read... but I wonder what % of craft beer breweries that can use those? Surely it can't be the only manufacturer?
yea that sucks but I leave these types of concerns up to brewers as I am not sure who and what distribution my fav beer is canned by. I personally cannot wait to score some Nugget nectar in can this year as I am a big fan of the cans for trading, storing and overall quality control.
Good Article, but I believe there are 2 sides to every story and we are just hearing one side of this.
In the US, the large beer can manfacturers are Ball and Crown - the logos* of each can be on the cans themselves, usually near the bar code and "Government Warning". * "Ball" in underlined script, Crown's logo is a crown - as shown in the linked sites of each. The boycott is against the Crown cans manufactured in Canada - unlikely that US brewers get their Crown cans from the struck plant in Ontario.
I found it interesting, so I wanted to post it. I don't feel like I have a **** in that particular fight, nor do I wish to field my **** in one. One reason I did post it was to stir the pot a little bit and see what sort of reaction it would get from the people who came out wicked strong against Rogue for their labour issues.
There has been a fairly pronounced media campaign, at least in Ontario, by the Union on this over the past few months. They have regular radio spots outliining their position and requesting a boycott. I'm not sure it is having any impact on sales. I haven't seen anything from any of the craft brewers in Ontario that speaks to this issue.
It is a small union, and in the end, 1/4 of the workers will lose their jobs [citation]. People's moral choices are their own, and they will make them as they see fit. I would hope that this issue can be discussed on this forum without politics and emotion coming into play (as it has so far).
A buddy sent the story to me this morning,I have to ask,why stop at beer? Beer cans are far from the only packaging that crown manufactures and as mentioned not the only supplier to breweries. Food cans,aerosol cans,Paint cans,cookie,tea or chocolate tins,jar lids,make-up containers...Anything that uses metal packaging Crown makes so why boycott one industry ? ...And one that has little to do w/ this dispute. Beer will get them the most attention,Union BS !
I know Nuestadt Springs is can exclusive, Railway City generally sticks to cans now, Kilannan is cans and growlers only, some Nickel Brook, Amsterdam and Steamwhistle is canned just to name a few. There's quite a few more then you'd think.
As someone who has major issued with unions in general, this strike (and this article) provides no reason for me to boycott buying canned beer. I won't turn this in to a debate on unions by getting in to some of the deep rooted issued with unions, many of which likely apply to this case. That's not what BA is all about.
this article does nothing more than damage independent breweries. apparently, Molson and Labatt buy their cans from this company the union workers' radio ad makes ZERO mention of whom to boycott. just says to boycott cans in general. guys like Kensington Brewery must be shitting themselves in anger
I noticed a Kensington Brewery tweet at the end of January to the effect that Crown only produces for Molson and Labatt at the plant in question. A glance at cans in my recycling bin shows that Neustadt, Steam Whistle, Amsterdam, McAuslan and others have a Crown logo on them. I guess these are produced at a different Crown factory? I wonder if this even makes a difference for those who support a boycott?
Considering the article I read in the Toronto Star that this company make 1.1 Billion $ in profit, and then came out with an offer that would cut there wages by a 1/3 and gut there benefits, specifically targeting a group of employee's that care close to retirement is disgusting... That this strike has continued so long, and company has brought in scab labour with little to know attention from the Provincial and Federal Government is shocking. I am going to be sending out some letters to the breweries calling attention to this. Disgusting.
I fear that small brewers would be MORE affected by this than Crown itself... which would be the wrong reason to boycott.. at least imho. The reason that small breweries would be most affected is that we do not have the flexibility or the $$ to change producers on the fly. Setting up cans is an expensive proposition. Each can design costs money both for plates and for piloting.. typically in the $3k-5k range.. per design..not including the designing of the art. So even if we are disappointed in how Crown is handling this...and we are..... with 4 can designs in process it is REAL MONEY for us to move to another supplier. That $3k - $5k per can does not actually get you any cans BTW... just the ability to order and pay for cans. The bottom line in the can world is that the Can makers hold all the cards. Crown recently declared that they would no longer allow minimum runs of 8 pallets and half height pallets - things that made canning super attractive to small brewers. Now the minimum order is 12 pallets or 1/2 truckload. Even tho you had to pay a premium for 8 pallet mins and half height pallets, they were at least an option. Their plants produce MILLIONS of cans a day - in most cases a FULL truck run for a small brewer like us (150k cans) is more of a PITA than it is anything else. We get this, but of course it gives us no leverage. So - sadly I think that a boycott would hurt small brewers who have no leverage, no say, and no other choices. Something to think about....
