City Brewing Co. and Graphic Packaging International are working toward bringing automation to variety packing in the beverage industry. City Brewing Company’s packing site in Memphis, TN, will soon be operating a QuikFlex 2100 beverage cartoning machine from GPI.
The QuikFlex2100 is the fastest beverage folding carton machine in GPI’s portfolio and an industry-proven packaging system. The QuikFlex2100 provides versatility over a wide range of pack styles and configurations, offering the flexibility to work with multi-diameter/multi- height cans. This machine features GPI’s latest technology and innovation, allowing it to meet the highest speed requirements on new or existing product lines.
The Variety Pack Line will add 9.5 million cases a year to the current Memphis plant capacity of 50 million cases at City Brewing Company. This organic, kosher, and gluten-free facility currently fills 12oz, 16oz, and 24oz standard cans and the 8oz and 12oz sleek specialty cans. The plant also has the ability to fill glass bottles and kegs.
These capabilities are available for all types of beverage manufacturers, and City Brewing Company is able to handle nearly any type of beverage product, including beer, spirits, tea, energy drinks, natural soda, cider, wine and sparkling waters amongst others.
The Variety Line will be capable of packing the entire range of cans it currently handles in formats from 4-packs to 30-packs and mix up to six flavors.
By adding the variety packing in-line as an automated process, customers will have many benefits as compared to manual packing. The new process will be much cleaner and more organized, diminishing the risk of having the wrong mix. The cans and cartons will experience less wear and tear, as the cans will be handled consistently along with the cartons, thereby providing higher quality outcome. The new line will be faster and more efficient, as brands can now convert variety packs for national roll-outs in a couple of days instead of weeks or months of pre-building.