Unlike many other origin stories, ours did not start with in a romantic way, where passion was turned into a profession or magical moment stroked founder with a genius idea. Hans, our founder had a regular 8 to 5 job at the bank branch. He had a perfect vision in his mind, thinking that he is not the person who wants to wake up one day, being all grey in his hair, with the only goal to wait for his retirement from a common office job. So, he kept his mind and eyes open.
Back in 2015, an opportunity occurred. Seeing closely his friends from a small craft beer brewery (back then, a lot of current players started) struggling with bottling: dealing with the slow bottling process in a questionable sanitary condition. Every time, seeing those situations, Hans was thinking in his mind, are brewers willing to pay for it, if he is going to solve their problems? Back then everybody brewing into bottles, Hans thought that mobile bottling service would not be “THE ONE”. He needed to put a twist on it.
Cans instead of bottles and canned craft beer
Needs to be referred that back in 2015 it was rare (not to say nonexistent) to see craft beer brewed into cans by small breweries. Maybe it was because of understanding that craft beer needs to be in those 330 ml bottles to look somewhat different from the mainstream selection. Or maybe in that time, it was a lack of available technology or the price of that equipment was too high. Also, the legendary myth (still around) is that canned beer tastes bad, and only cheap beer is in the cans, which played a huge role.
Hans googled the daylight out of the web and found that in recent years mobile canning service has started up in the US and found the right mobile canning machine to offer mobile service with it. Problem was that it cost salty 120k euros. The banker or not, this money still needed to be loaned.
Raising money for the canning machine
So how did it go, you may figure? Well, it went like a poem:
- Business plan – done
- List of banks, grant funds – done
- Smile and enthusiasm – done
- Positive feedback (or money) – none
Most of the rejections were about the same – nobody will buy canned craft beer!
Not much more success from multiple tries with start-up accelerators. These committees did not tell that nobody will buy canned craft beers. Instead, they made it very clear, that they don’t give a damn if anybody will buy canned craft beer.
Back in the bank office
Watching out of a window on a rainy day, Hans tried to think about solutions and options. Nobody wanted to back his idea, everyone was sure that canned craft beer is a no-go. So, he made the most logical conclusion – this needs to be done!
Thankfully, Hans had a couple of friends with an engineering background and around 30k to build his prototype of a mobile canning machine. Must be said, that watching back to it, it would have been a lot cheaper to go with the original idea for a single unit. First, real-life canning tests were done in mid-2016. The first “official” mobile canning service was also done in 2016. The very same year we sold our first own made canning machine.
3 000 000 cans and 50 sold canning machines later
Thankfully, it all worked out. Yes, there is some sweetness in proving doubters wrong, but this is not the reason why we are doing it. We truly believe that can give the best beer (or any other carbonated craft drink) experience. We let you choose, is it because of protection, weight, or environmental impact – can is a winner in all categories!
Canning line producers or mobile canning service providers?
Why not both? Sure is, that we are craft drink enthusiasts and that gets us quickly to the same page with brewers. If You happen to be one, give us a quick “hello” if it can be beneficial for both sides..
