52 PW JUL2021
Co-pack/Co-man Bets on Beverage Market Transformation Wisconsin-based beverage packer Octopi positions itself to address a rapidly changing beverage market, as well as a shift from bottles to cans, with two canning lines, the newest of which will produce up to 1,200 cans/min in seven sizes. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
Beverage market transformation
Can filling
Contract packaging/manufacturing
By Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor It took Mexico City-born entrepreneur Isaac Showaki 30 years, six types of visas, and multiple jobs in the brewing industry to realize his dream of becoming an American citizen and launching his own highly successful beverage business, Octopi. What he learned, as he shared at a 2020 Tedx Talk—“Failing My Way into the American Dream” (see pwgo. to/7059)—was that overcoming failure not only requires persistence, but also the willingness and imagination to try new strategies. According to Showaki, the lesson is, “Don’t try and try again. Try, and if you get stuck, try something else.” Ever since his first visit to the U.S. when he was four, Showaki was determined to make America his home. After studying at Boston University, he had a string of consulting jobs that cemented his love for the brewing industry and that brought him back and forth to the states. In 2011, while on an investor’s visa, he co-founded the nation’s first Latin craft brewery in the Chicago. Upon leaving the company and after living in the U.S. for 13 years, Showaki was preparing to return to Mexico when he met his wife—an American citizen—and got his sixth and final visa and then his green card. Now able to fully pursue his American Dream, Showaki opened Octopi in 2014 in Waunakee, Wis., just outside of Madison. The business, initially offering contract manufacturing and contract packaging services for beer brands only, started with a staff of six, including Showaki, and shipped 150,000 cases of product its first year. Today Octopi has 150 full-time employees, with 30 open positions, ships up to 3.5 million cases of beverage products per year, or 250,000 barrels (bbls) in brewing parlance, and handles virtually any type of beverage that can be packaged in a bottle, keg, or can. The company is in the process of nearly quadrupling its footprint, with a plant expansion that will house a custom-built canning line. Its current packaging processes include a glass bottling line, a canning line, and a kegging line—all from KHS Group. With its end-to-end services
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Following his bad experiences working with contract brewers, Isaac Showaki built his contract packaging/manufacturing beverage business with a focus on quality and customer service.
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