MOORESVILLE — In preparation for its newest packaging line, Carolina Beer and Beverage temporarily contracted the production of its beer brands to other breweries.
The company moved the production of its 11 beer brands to Olde Hickory Brewery in Hickory and Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., to accommodate the manufacturing of a new product line, a yeast-free health drink, that will hit store shelves later this year.
"With beer, you just can't make enough for a year, and sit it in a corner," said Carolina Beer and Beverage President John Stritch. "It was a good business decision. We found two capable places that let us be hands-on with our beer."
Stritch founded the company with Michael Smith in 1997. Both men have experience in the beverage industry, and have created about 12 beers sold under the Carolina Blonde and Cottonwood Ales brands. The brewery is on Barley Park Lane, off Mazeppa Road, in Mooresville.
Carolina Beer and Beverage hired an outside company to sanitize the room it used as a brewery and purchased new floor drains in order to create a yeast-free environment for the new production area.
Stritch said the facility and product will undergo tests and a quality control audit in order to make sure everything meets the customer's standards.
Carolina Beer employees travel to the other breweries to supervise the production, and the beer is made with the same ingredients.
In addition to the extended-shelf-life energy drink products, Carolina Beer will start bottling tea at the end of this year.
Once testing is completed, the beer production will be moved back to Mooresville, Stritch said.
If Carolina Beer determines that the beer can't be made at its current location, production will be moved to another Mooresville location that will be more accessible to tourists, he said.
Packaging other companies' beverages has become a huge part of Carolina Beer and Beverage business.
In the past six years, the company has undergone several major expansions to accommodate its ever-growing list of clients.
Stritch said the company started in a 25,000-square-foot building with only six employees. It is now nearly 200,000 square feet with a staff of 200 keeping it in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The company started packaging Mike's Hard Lemonade, then the opportunity came along to package other beverages, such as energy and health drinks, which have become company's largest growth market.
The beverage company mixes and packages organic, non-alcoholic, Kosher and fruit beverages, along with beer and wine.
In the first quarter of 2010, the company's business has gone up 75 percent, Stritch said.
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