Berlin Packaging Brings Significant Value to Brewery Ops Big and Small

Photography courtesy of Berlin Packaging

Several business models rolled into one, Berlin Packaging offers a wide range of services to meet all of a brewery’s packaging needs. The company functions simultaneously as a distributor, manufacturer, and packaging consultancy.
“We’re a Hybrid Packaging Supplier,” Butler says. “We’re focused on bringing value to the clients. Our knowledge of supplier capabilities combined with a suite of value-added services, including warehousing and end-to-end logistics, results in a compelling solution.”

(No matter where you are), we are close to your facility.

Brian Butler - Berlin Packaging

Butler adds that Berlin also has a service division that helps clients with technical challenges—like can seaming issues—at no additional charge.

Starting in Chicago, Berlin Packaging has grown globally, with locations throughout North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

“We have six million square feet of warehouse space across hundreds of facilities,” Butler says. “[No matter where you are], we are close to your facility.”

Berlin Packaging services the automotive, chemical, pet care, personal health, pharmaceutical, wine, beer, spirits, and cannabis industries.

Photography courtesy of Berlin Packaging

“We manage the entire supply chain,” Ewing says. [Customers] can talk to a few Berlin Packaging people and get everything done.”

With six hundred warehouses worldwide, Berlin Packaging is always nearby with an entire supply of much-needed materials—cans, can ends, PakTechs, case trays, bottles, and more.

“We’re a one-stop shop,” Ewing says.

The company’s global footprint saves breweries the hassle of simultaneously ordering large quantities of packaging materials, such as a truckload of cans. Since they typically have a facility nearby, Berlin Packaging lets breweries get a pallet or two at a time.

We manage the entire supply chain,

Nick Ewing - Berlin Packaging

Ewing says there is a huge value to having nearby warehouses to eliminate would-be problems.

“In the supply chain of packaging in general, you have variables like machine capacity, machine downtime or tooling fixes, routine maintenance—then you get into the logistics of moving, and there are possibilities of missed pickups, trucks breaking down, poor weather, et cetera,” Ewing says. “The variables are still there, but Berlin is managing them, and by having stock locally and using our robust demand planning, we have days/weeks of safety stock in-house.”

He adds, “The customer is focused on their inventory sitting in our warehouse nearby, knowing they can get it the next day.”

Photography courtesy of Berlin Packaging

Ewing, who has been with the company for over a decade, believes Berlin Packaging’s best asset for breweries has been its reliability throughout the years.

“We’ve managed when the entire canning industry had more than you could believe and when it was as tight as it has ever been,” Ewing says. “Berlin has been reliable throughout the entire process, assisting businesses and business growth.”

And that’s breweries of all different sizes.

“We have some who order a couple of brite cans a month,” Ewing says, “folks who do tens of millions of cans a year, and everything in between.”

The company also allows for flexible ordering, helping with cash flow savings.

Butler notes that because Berlin Packaging buys in volume, they can pass those savings to the breweries.

“One of the great things we [also] provide is inventory management,” Butler says. “We bring the warehousing management, flexible order volumes, and a really significant logistics program. Breweries create their shopping list of needs, and we deliver the next day.”

Though there are other places where you can get your packaging materials, Berlin Packaging offers another significant benefit that sets it apart from the rest.

“Expertise,” says Ewing, one of the company’s seasoned reps. “Between the top ten sellers, we have one-hundred-plus years of experience.”

Ewing notes he saw many packaging suppliers enter the industry only three to four years ago, so Berlin Packaging’s seasoned reps make a crucial difference. Along with an eye on what’s trending in the industry, “We will ask you the right questions,” he says.

Photography courtesy of Berlin Packaging

According to Ewing, Berlin Packaging’s practices can lead to “quantifiable savings” for breweries.

For instance, Butler reiterates the buying power that Berlin Packaging has to help “avoid small order fees.”

“We bring in mixed shipments to fulfill the shopping list,” Butler says. “All those bring a lot of value to the craft brewers.”

Ewing says by housing inventory in their global warehouses, Berlin Packaging saves breweries the hassle and cost of hiring personnel to manage it themselves.

If we couldn’t drive value, we wouldn’t be successful.

Nick Ewing - Berlin Packaging

“If we hold $1 million in inventory, the cost to hold that inventory and a person to manage it is about $200,000,” says Ewing. “When we talk about individual customers, twenty percent of your total value of inventory, that’s the cost of carrying that.”

Typically, Berlin can quantify about twenty percent of their inventory cost, which it would otherwise have on hand at any given time. A lot of this is derived from the total cost of ownership model where Berlin holding inventory and shipping just in time frees up cash and space for them. A lot of the time, they aren’t able to quantify those values unless the customer shares the interest they’re paying with the bank and the cost of the square footage.

“But, say they are holding five truckloads of cans, they probably have $125,000 to $140,000 invested in those cans on their floor that is eating up cash and space,” Ewing says. “By Berlin holding that inventory and shipping just in time, it’s opening up that amount of cash plus that amount of space plus the estimated twenty percent of the cost to carry that inventory.”

Ewing adds that Berlin’s specialty services, like Studio One Eleven, the company’s design and innovation division—which does design work for them—are free services. They just want the packaging business in return.

“So we can quantify that for them, too,” Ewing says. “A lot of times, if you go to an outside firm, you pay hundreds of dollars per hour, so they might receive an invoice for branding work that is $10,000. Instead, Berlin would manage the can business and do the branding work and not charge the quantifiable $10,000 it would have cost to go elsewhere.”

That’s the difference at Berlin Packaging. Brewers aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet; they’re real people. At Berlin Packaging, the relationship always goes deeper than just a transaction.

Ewing says they talk monthly with a partner to ensure they keep an efficient pipeline.

“We can accommodate for whatever situation,” says Ewing. “If we couldn’t drive value, we wouldn’t be successful.”