A toast to growth
Craft beverage can maker pops the top on expansion at Austin industrial park
American Canning, an Austin-based maker of aluminum cans for sellers of beer and other craft beverages, is more than tripling the size of its operations to accommodate increased demand.
The company just signed a long-term lease to occupy an entire 154,786-square-foot facility at Park 183 in Southeast Austin. That space will serve as its manufacturing plant and headquarters. American Canning soon will vacate its current 45,309-square-foot space at Park 183 and relocate to the larger quarters.
Park 183, in the 800 block of Burleson Road near U.S. Highway 183, is a new 92-acre industrial park that eventually will comprise more than 950,000 square feet of space across seven buildings.
The new American Canning plant will be able to produce about 300 million 12-ounce and 16-ounce cans per year for craft beer, as well as small-batch wine, coffee, tea, soda, water, juice, and other beverages.
“Large can makers do what they do very well — scale and efficiency. That requires their customers to have long-term forecasts, substantial production runs, and sophisticated supply chain operations,” David Racino, co-founder and CEO of American Canning, says in a news release. “That is simply not something all small and upstart beverage companies have. We want to build a more modern ecosystem that allows those brands and organizations to thrive.”
The company, founded in 2013, is expanding its operations to meet greater demand due to craft breweries shifting to sales of packaged beer after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of their taprooms.
“We are designing our plant to cater to our client base of craft beverage producers, who need guaranteed availability of cans for low-volume orders,” Racino says. “Changes in market dynamics … made it clear we needed to create our own supply to build a more modern ecosystem allowing small brands to thrive.”
John Barksdale and Joe Novek, both of commercial real estate services provider CBRE, represented Trammell Crow in the leasing deal. Dallas-based Trammell Crow, a subsidiary of CBRE, and New York City-based Clarion Partners are developing Park 183. CBRE’s Darryl Dadon represented American Canning.
