您的下一罐精酿啤酒可能要贵得多。
Ball Corp (BLL) 是世界上最大的铝罐供应商之一，在取消了某些生产商必须订购的罐头最低数量并表示将提高价格后，它在整个精酿啤酒界掀起了轩然大波。
Ball 表示，现在将要求非合同客户——包括许多小型啤酒厂——从 1 月 1 日开始，每份饮料订购不少于五卡车（约 102 万罐）。以前的最低购买量是每卡车一卡车产品。
此外，从 2022 年开始，Ball 写道，它将不再能够在其仓库中存储来自非合同客户的多余罐头，并且至少对于一些非合同客户而言，每罐价格将上涨近 50% ，根据发给啤酒厂的通知。
这一消息使许多小型和区域性啤酒厂争先恐后地获得罐头，并引发了对消费者成本增加、品种减少和价格上涨的担忧。
“我确实认为这对某些人来说是一个经济杀手，当然大多数小型酿酒商将不得不大幅提高价格或重新考虑他们的整个模式，”夏威夷 Maui Brewing Co. 首席执行官兼联合创始人 Garrett Marrero 说。 .
紧密结合的精酿啤酒行业已经受到大流行刺激的餐厅和酒吧关闭、通货膨胀压力、罐头短缺和其他供应链中断的影响。
然后，根据代表小型独立酿酒商的贸易组织酿酒商协会的说法，一周多前，来自 Ball 的通知进入了全国数百家精酿酿酒商的收件箱。 Denver Westword 率先报道了 Ball 的最低购买量。
在向 CNN Business 提供副本的信件中，鲍尔写道，铝罐的需求继续供不应求。
信中称：“鲍尔正在投资以增加在线产能，与此同时，在可预见的未来，我们的供应环境仍将受到严格限制。” “这种环境使我们难以提供客户期望从 Ball 获得的优质客户体验，我们正在对我们的业务开展方式进行一些调整以弥补这一点。”
距离新年还有不到六周的时间，数百家精酿啤酒商将不再能够直接从 Ball 购买他们的预印罐，而是必须从新的来源确保其业务中最关键的组成部分之一，鲍勃说Pease，啤酒协会主席兼首席执行官。
“这仍然是相当新鲜的，所以我们仍在努力从受到影响的成员那里收集信息，”皮斯告诉 CNN Business。
皮斯说，酿酒商协会正在权衡其选择并考虑与政策制定者接触，并希望与鲍尔的高管交谈，鲍尔是长期会员，他补充说。周五，皮斯表示，他收到了鲍尔高级领导层的回复，双方正努力在 12 月召开会议，讨论最近的变化。
公司发言人告诉 CNN Business，鲍尔并没有完全放弃精酿啤酒行业。
Ball 发言人 Scott McCarty 在一封电子邮件中写道：“新模式将提高我们的整体效率，并使我们能够为包括精酿啤酒商在内的签约客户实际生产更多罐。”
麦卡蒂补充说，鲍尔正在美国建立五家工厂来生产更多的罐头，并补充说“我们每年都会评估供需情况，并将继续在有意义的地方进行投资。”
作为无法满足提高的最低要求的客户的潜在解决方案，Ball 提供了四家分销商的联系信息，这些分销商可以接受较小的订单、提供仓储并提供标签选项，如贴纸和塑料收缩包装。
'这将迫使我们破产'
当 Upslope Brewing Company 于 2008 年在科罗拉多州博尔德成立时，它是为数不多的仅将啤酒包装在铝罐中的精酿啤酒商之一。
“我的第一个罐头电话是给鲍尔，”联合创始人马特·卡特告诉 CNN Business。 “他们说，'没关系，你可以买一卡车的。'”
对于 Upslope 而言，这在当时是行不通的，该公司的启动资金来自 Cutter 房屋的第二次抵押贷款。但几年后，当 Upslope 的融雪啤酒在西部山区被消费时，这当然是可能的。
“鲍尔一直在敲我们的门，”他说。
Ball 也是一家总部位于科罗拉多州的公司，在高速公路旁有一家制罐工厂，并提供仓储和更便宜的运输等服务。 Upslope 自 2014 年以来一直从 Ball 那里整车购买罐头，现在感觉被冷落了。
Cutter 担心更高的成本——包括原材料、存储以及与新分销商合作的任何额外利润——最终可能会导致商店出售的六件装工艺在明年春天之前上涨 1 至 2 美元。
他说，最终，这些更高的成本对于小型企业来说可能是不可持续的。
“作为精酿啤酒商，我们不会在这里揉面团，”他说。 “我们无法吸收这一点。它会迫使我们破产。”
在科罗拉多州普韦布洛，Walter Brewing Co. 的联合创始人之一正疯狂地试图了解鲍尔的计划对他的啤酒厂可能意味着什么。
Walter Brewing 已从从 Ball 以及直接从 Ball 购买的团体购买了用于 Walter's Original Pilsner 和 Walter's Pueblo 智利啤酒的罐头。
“我们需要一年多的时间才能完成[一卡车的装载]，”Walter Brewing 的共同所有人之一安迪·桑切斯 (Andy Sanchez) 说。
新需要的五辆卡车是不可能的。
“提前六周通知，在这么短的时间内需要消化很多东西，”桑切斯说。 “如果鲍尔能够重新考虑这条道路，并可能想出一种减轻短期影响的方法，这对所有小型啤酒厂来说都至关重要。”
Marrero 说，由于 Maui Brewing 在夏威夷的业务范围以及与 Ball 在那里的工厂的密切关系，Maui Brewing 应该相对不受重大干扰的影响。然而，他担心内地的啤酒厂和 Maui Brewing 在那里扩大生产的努力面临复杂化。
他担心无法浮动成本转移供应商的啤酒商将被迫改变其运营、关闭或合并。他说他还担心这可能会导致更多地使用不可持续的材料，例如塑料标签。
他说：“这将推动精酿啤酒的发展模式发生转变。”
Craft beer might get even more expensive
San Francisco (CNN Business)Your next can of craft beer might be a lot more expensive.
Ball Corp (BLL)., one of the world's largest suppliers of aluminum cans, is sending shockwaves throughout the craft beer world after lifting the minimum number of cans certain producers must order and saying it will raise prices.
Ball said it will now require that non-contract customers -- who include many smaller breweries -- order no fewer than five truckloads (roughly 1.02 million cans) per each of their beverages starting on January 1. The previous purchase minimum was one truckload per product.
Additionally, starting in 2022, Ball wrote that it would no longer be able to store excess cans from those non-contract customers in its warehouses and that the price-per-can would increase by nearly 50% for at least some non-contract customers, according to notices sent to breweries.
The news has many small and regional breweries scrambling to secure cans and has spurred fears of heftier costs, reduced variety and higher prices for consumers.
"I do see this as an economic killer for some, and certainly most small brewers are going to have to raise prices significantly or rethink their entire models," said Garrett Marrero, chief executive officer and co-founder of Maui Brewing Co. in Hawaii.
The tight-knit craft beer industry was already reeling from pandemic-spurred restaurant and taproom closures, inflationary pressures, can shortages and other supply chain disruptions.
Then, a little over a week ago, notices from Ball landed in the inboxes of hundreds of craft brewers across the country, according to the Brewers Association, the trade organization representing small and independent brewers. The Denver Westword was the first to report about Ball's purchase minimums.
In the letters, copies of which were provided to CNN Business, Ball wrote that demand for aluminum cans continues to outstrip supply.
"Ball is making investments to bring additional capacity online, and in the meantime we remain in a tightly constrained supply environment for the foreseeable future," according to the letter. "This environment is making it difficult for us to deliver the quality customer experience our customers expect from Ball, and we are making some adjustments to how we do business to remedy that."
With fewer than six weeks until the new year, hundreds of craft brewers will no longer be able to buy their pre-printed cans directly from Ball and instead will have to secure one of the most critical components of their business from new sources, said Bob Pease, president and chief executive officer of the Brewers Association.
"This is still pretty darn new, so we're still trying to gather information from our members that are being impacted," Pease told CNN Business.
The Brewers Association is weighing its options and considering reaching out to policymakers, Pease said, and was hoping to talk with executives at Ball, which is a longtime member, he added. On Friday, Pease said he heard back from Ball's senior leadership, and the two sides are working to set up a meeting in December to discuss the recent changes.
Ball isn't completely abandoning the craft beer industry, a company spokesperson told CNN Business.
"The new model will increase our overall efficiency and allow us to actually produce more cans for our contracted customers, including craft brewers," Ball spokesperson Scott McCarty wrote in an email.
McCarty added that Ball is building five plants in the United States to produce more cans, adding that "each year, we evaluate supply and demand and will continue to invest where it makes sense."
As potential solutions for customers that couldn't meet the raised minimums, Ball offered up contact information for four distributors that could take smaller orders, provide warehousing, and offer labeling options such as stickers and plastic shrink wrap.
'It will force us out of business'
When Upslope Brewing Company launched in Boulder, Colorado in 2008, it was one of only a handful of craft brewers to package their beer solely in aluminum cans.
"My first phone call for cans was to Ball," co-founder Matt Cutter told CNN Business. "They said, 'That's fine, you can buy a truckload.'"
That wasn't doable then for Upslope, a business whose startup funds came from the second mortgage of Cutter's house. But a few years later, when Upslope's snowmelt-based beer was being consumed throughout the Mountain West region, it certainly was possible.
"And Ball kept knocking on our door," he said.
Ball, also a Colorado-based company, had a can-making facility just down the highway, and offered up services such as storage and cheaper shipping. Upslope, which has bought its cans by the truckload from Ball since 2014, now feels left out in the cold.
Cutter fears that the higher costs -- including raw material, storage and any added margins from working with new distributors -- could ultimately lead to craft six-packs sold at stores being $1 to $2 more expensive by next spring.
Ultimately, he said, these higher costs might not be sustainable for smaller businesses.
"As craft brewers, we're not rolling in the dough here," he said. "We can't absorb this. It'll force us out of business."
In Pueblo, Colorado, one of the co-founders of Walter Brewing Co. was frantically trying to get up to speed on what Ball's plans may mean for his brewery.
Walter Brewing has purchased cans for its Walter's Original Pilsner and Walter's Pueblo Chile Beer from groups that buy from Ball, as well as directly from Ball.
"It would take us more than a year's time to go through [a truckload]," said Andy Sanchez, one of Walter Brewing's co-owners.
The newly required five truckloads is out of the question.
"With six weeks' notice, it's a lot to digest in that short time," Sanchez said. "It would be crucial for all small breweries if Ball would rethink the path and maybe think of a way to mitigate the short-term impacts."
Maui Brewing, because of its scope of operations in Hawaii and close relations with Ball's plant there, should be relatively insulated from major disruptions, Marrero said. However, he fears that breweries on the Mainland and Maui Brewing's efforts to expand production there face complications.
He's concerned brewers that can't float the costs to shift suppliers will be forced to change their operations, close or consolidate. He said he's also worried this may lead to a greater use of less-sustainable materials, such as plastic labels.
"This is going to create a paradigm shift in craft beer moving forward," he said.
