A startup from Salt Lake City wants to turn the beverage can market upside down and plans to open an extensive facility in the west of the city this fall and to hire around 400 new employees.
Vobev managing director Eric Cudnohoske said his company is opening the first all-in-one aluminum can factory in North America which, when operational, will manufacture cans, label, fill and ship a variety of finished products a single roof.
Cudnohoske said the current beverage can industry is an industry where the manufacture, filling and shipping of cans are usually done in separate processes, and sometimes through widely dispersed facilities. Vobev is able to break through this clunky and inefficient legacy model, save customers time and money and reduce the cumulative carbon footprint on the way to market launch of products.
“The can and beverage industry has a problem,” said Cudnohoske. “A can could be made on the east coast, the empty can is shipped across the country to the west coast to be filled and then packaged elsewhere. It can then go to another location to be shipped to the end user.
“Vobev will be the market disruptor who unites everything under one roof.”
While aluminum cans are some of the easiest and most efficient to recycle, global consumption of beverage cans piles up to 180 billion empties every year. According to an analysis by Fortune Business Insights, the beverage can market in the US alone was valued at over $ 25 billion in 2019 and is one on the rise that is projected to exceed $ 36 billion by 2027.
The Fortune report found that the public health COVID-19 crisis had a significant impact on the beverage can market, including disrupting bauxite mining (from which aluminum is melted), as well as the transportation of raw materials and the recycling ecosystem. These issues led to a tightening of aluminum supplies even as pandemic conditions spurred consumption as consumers stocked up on their favorite products amid health restrictions. The report cites the unexpected surge in demand that continues to fuel the growth of the industry.
Cudnohoske said Vobev sees its market primarily with small to medium-sized manufacturers, but could also act as a canning / distributor for larger companies looking to bring some of their production closer to customers and retailers in the Mountain West and West Coast regions. He said there were many reasons for the decision to locate the Vobev facility in Utah, but also sees the state’s increasing activity in unique and small-scale beverage production as a potential boon for the new facility. And according to Cudnohoske, Vobev can help beverage entrepreneurs get their products to consumers and on the shelves faster than the piece-by-piece approach
Cudnohoske said Vobev will focus on an inclusive and supportive work environment with a “people first” mantra that he believes will apply to its own employees as well as to business partners and employees.
“Our management team takes great pride in the culture of collaboration we create,” said Cudnohoske in a statement. “We are very excited to be building an organization and brand that delivers world class products, and we cannot do that without great people. Vobev is structured so that individuals have a voice and we can’t wait to see the future that we are building together. “
While most of the expected new hires will involve Vobev’s production lines, Cudnohoske said he will classify the jobs as “high-level manufacturing positions” that will keep the cutting edge technology and automation going.
Cudnohoske declined to reveal details of Vobev’s start-up funding, but described the company as “totally independent” and a shootout because its first beverage cans left the mailer door sometime in the final quarter of the year.
The company announced that new jobs will be posted as soon as they become available on the Vobev website.
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