The Beverage Packaging Supply Chain: What Producers Need to Know About Sourcing

To create a successful beverage brand, it’s not enough to produce a top-notch beverage. The packaging that protects and displays the product to the public presents a complicated supply chain of vendors, lead times, and quality control standards that can make or break a launch. Effective sourcing from the get-go helps save time, money, and potential issues down the line.

Thus, new producers often bite off more than they can chew when they learn just how complicated packaging sourcing can be. What seems easy on paper – order bottles, labels and closures – quickly becomes a complicated existence of minimum order requirements, seasonal production, and required quality control that stuns young beverage producers who have not entered the world yet.

Finding the Components – What You Need to Sourcing

Beverage packaging is made of several different components, all of which must work together. For instance, the primary – glass bottles, aluminum cans, plastic tubs – work either as single pieces or multiple pieces in a cohesive system. Labels provide insight into branding and legal requirements for sale. Closures keep the components together and impact quality of life from longevity to opening.

Each component has its supply chain intricacies. Glass manufacturers have different lead times for production than label printers while closures have their own quality standards and requirements that differ based on plastic or metal application. Getting all these moving parts together is not as easy as it seems; it requires knowledge from each part’s producer to know their capabilities and subsequent requirements.

Added to this is how interconnected all components are. If a manufacturer doesn’t get glass containers on time, the producers will need to adjust their entire schedule even if labels and closures are in hand. Or if the label printer did an awful job on all the new prints, this can delay production for an entire period unless component manufacturing is separate.

Where Minimum Orders and Lead Times Come into Play

One of the biggest shockers for new producers to experience is the minimum order quantity in alignment with their first run plans. They assume they can order thousands of units but soon realize that custom options require larger orders just to meet a manufacturer’s quota. For example, custom-glass bottles have 100,000 unit minimums while custom closures have the same.

The same applies for lead times; custom glass takes 12-16 weeks from order to delivery with no hitches. Labels take 2-4 weeks for production while closures depend on materials. Thus, producers must align their packaging creation with anticipated time frames and learn through experience how far ahead they must plan.

Where to Source Closures

When sourcing materials, closures often become an afterthought – they matter less than labels or bottles at first glance. However, the first thought a consumer has when they obtain a beverage is whether there is an appropriate way to get inside.

Thus, producers need to look into where can you buy corks, plastics or twist closures to add value and open their appeal. This means thinking about unit price for cost per unit as well as where these are produced in correlation with closure needs – natural cork is seasonal based on where they’re grown while synthetic closures have different qualities but more availability across seasons.

Furthermore, closures require their own level of storage versus testing versus discretion with how much each closure can cost based on expected quality by consumer appeal and manufacturer requirement.

Components Impact Other Components

In addition, choosing closures impacts other aspects – bottle neck finishes are better suited for certain closures while quality control expectations on how best to apply versus take off a closure means labels can better be adjusted elsewhere.

Thus, sourcing closures early can impact the packaging supply chain in ways producers do not expect.

Building Relationships

The best beverage brands establish strong partnerships with their suppliers instead of treating them like commodity suppliers with which they can trade when necessary.

Thus, when production timelines need to be adjusted, or new resources aren’t where they expect them to be or the market changes dramatically, those who know the brand’s dreams versus pitfalls tend to go above and beyond efforts.

Communication is critical – for anyone relying upon vendors should routinely check in with their capacity for what they’re producing (or not), how the materials are coming along along with forecasts for success. By incorporating a timeline for growth well before production begins helps suppliers allocate their efforts in a timely manner.

In addition, payment terms play a large role in ensuring reliable operations along with credit relationships – paying on time establishes good rapport so when times are tough or additional help is needed, gaps are filled in more seamlessly than trying to accommodate new faces.

Quality Control Measures As Necessary

Quality control begins from assessing suppliers through incoming shipments, storage capabilities and production use quality standards. Various materials/components require different standards – bottles require pressure testing or clarity options while labels require texture or lifetime testing; closures require seal integrity data or how easily someone can take them off.

Establishing quality control measures means catching issues before they hit production saves excess costs and consumer complaints for quality failures. Many successful brands establish incoming inspection measures where quality test samples assess what’s come in and quarantine those shipments until approval is made.

Challenges come with space/equipment/people trained on these efforts but ultimately saves money/time/energy in new production hours.

Cost Management Over Quality Failures

Costs are often 20-30% of a beverage product cost structure thus managing costs are critical – but cutting costs endeavors rarely pan out when failures/disasters create poor quality complaints or damage brand image over one-time savings.

Managing costs works on total cost of ownership instead; if one supplier is slightly more expensive but provides better service/reliable turnaround/helping reduce waste/rework costs due to quality assurance up front that’s worth it relative to saving volume commitments which are unfortunately based on demand forecasts versus overstock considerations.

Planning Ahead of Time For Product Expansion

Packaging supply chains work up to a certain production value but as brands expand, they often fall apart. For example, producers may find they order 1k units from one supplier but learn they can’t execute more than that with their capabilities once they reach 100k units or beyond.

Thus, producers should keep this in mind ahead of time – where will they find secondary partners as they grow? Multiple suppliers supply smaller components until brands blend them through volume thus supporting the transition without question directly through.

Success stories network. Successful brands often work between suppliers based on volumes and once they exceed their needs, these transitions become seamless since they’ve worked together before and/or another supplier sees the disaster ahead and helps fill in gaps just in case transition fails.

In conclusion, starting a beverage brand successfully relies upon sourcing as a big picture effort like managing business more than procurement style tasks. Trying to get the supply chain right at first will only ensure that less headaches arise down the line that derail potential success before it even starts.