I Flew to Melbourne for a Piece of Cardboard

Last week I got on a plane to Melbourne to look at a machine.

Not a brewing machine. A wrapping machine. The one that takes four cans and puts a proper paper sleeve around them, instead of the plastic ring you've seen holding a thousand different beers together at the bottle shop.

Here's the thing about those plastic rings. They're everywhere. They're cheap, they're fast, and honestly, most breweries use them because it's the easy option.

But every time I hold a four pack (or six) like that, it feels like a demo product. Something you'd hand out at a festival, not something you'd put in someone's hands as the first impression of Punjabi Gold.

I didn't want that.I wanted something like the one below (see example)

If you're going to carry two homes in one heart, the box you carry it home in should feel like it matters too.

So I went looking for a wraparound 4-pack instead. The kind that fully hugs the cans, feels solid in your hand, and doesn't scream "we grabbed the cheapest packaging option available."

Simple idea. Should be easy to find, right?

I started asking around. Who does this in Australia. Where can I get it done.

Same answer, over and over. You can't. Or, more specifically, you shouldn't. It's an expensive operational expense, they'd tell me. You don't need it. Nobody does this for a reason.

Eight months of that.

Maybe I don't need it.

Maybe this is a mistake.

I thought that more than once. But I kept asking anyway. A few people passed me references. I chased every one of them down. Most led nowhere. Then one led to someone in Victoria who might actually be able to help.

So I got on a plane...

I sat down with the team in Melbourne not knowing what to expect. Eight months of no had trained me to expect another no.

Instead I got a yes.

We're going ahead with them for the wraparound packaging. It changes our timeline, and it means I have to move a few other pieces around to make it work. But that's a small price for getting the thing I actually wanted instead of settling for the plastic rings.

so I'm very excited about this partnership. Eight months of asking. One meeting fixed it all...

The Warehouse Visit

While I was down there I also spent time at the warehouse that'll be handling our distribution. Massive operation. I've never seen anything like it.

Their cold room alone was bigger than most full warehouses I've walked into in my life. 3,000 square metres of temperature controlled storage. Just standing in it, you realise how small our current operation still is, and how much room there is to grow into.

Met the team, walked the floor, talked through how cartons move once they leave the brewery. Good people, and they clearly know what they're doing.

The Part Nobody Tells You About Packaging

Here's something I didn't fully appreciate until I got into it. Cartons and cans are printed completely differently.

Cartons still use old stencil style printing. Which means if there's a mistake on the design, the whole thing has to be remade from scratch. No quick fix, no small edit. You get one shot to get the carton right before it goes to print, and it takes weeks of lead time.

Cans are the opposite. Digital print. Changes are simple. You can tweak the design a lot closer to production without blowing up the timeline.

So right now, most of the pressure is on getting the carton locked. Not the can. The thing you'd think is the smaller detail is actually the one with zero room for error.

Where I'm At

I'm heads down on packaging now. It's slower than I expected, and there are more moving parts than I expected. But that's the job. Nobody said building the first Indian inspired craft brewery in Australia would be a straight line.

The Next Challenge

Once packaging is locked, the next thing on my list is how our wholesale partners order from us.

Right now that process is manual. Bottle shops and venues call or email, and I take it from there.

It works, but it won't scale. I want to fix it sooner than later. so need to have a platform which makes ordering a seamless process.

More updates soon...

Jag

PUNJABI GOLD - Apni Beer. Our Beer.
#ApniBeer