American Canning LLC aims to produce 300 million cans every year in its new facility

Within the next several months, an Austin-based maker of aluminium cans and beverage packaging will relocate into a bigger facility as part of a plan to considerably expand operations. This spring, American Canning LLC will relocate to Park 183's Building 5. The company's new headquarters will be a 154,786-square-foot warehouse in Southeast Austin. The new facility will be three times the size of American Canning's present facility, the 45,309-square-foot Building 2 at Park 183, and will allow the firm to produce up to 300 million cans per year.

The company, which specialises in the machine manufacturing and distribution of blank aluminium cans, case trays, and other canning supplies, announced expansion plans in December, with the goal of starting production of 12-ounce cans in August and eventually moving to 16-ounce cans at the new facility. The new facility would more than increase American Canning's manufacturing capacity, with a second line devoted to "shrink-sleeve" cans expected to produce more than 1.5 million cans per week. According to an American Canning spokeswoman, operations are planned to be fully operational by 2023.

“We are designing our plant to cater to our client base of craft beverage producers, who need guaranteed availability of cans for low-volume orders. Changes in market dynamics, most recently with the can shortage, made it clear we needed to create our own supply to build a more modern ecosystem allowing small brands to thrive,” said David Racino, co-founder and CEO of American Canning.

American Canning now employs 75 people, but Racino said in an email that the company wants to expand its workforce over the next year. The firm had one job posting available as of Feb. 8, for chief financial officer. According to social media posts, Texas craft beer brewers such as True Vine Brewing in Tyler and SpindleTap Brewery in Houston have been consumers of American Canning.

Although the agreement was only publicised by brokers, American Canning signed a long-term lease for the 154,786-square-foot warehouse at Park 183 in Southeast Austin in mid-2021. In the Austin region, industrial space is in great demand. According to a CBRE research, the vacancy rate in the fourth quarter of 2021 was 4.9 percent, the lowest in more than a decade. Throughout the year, leasing activity was robust and vacancy rates were low. In 2021, total absorption was 3.5 million square feet.

According to CBRE, the Southeast Austin submarket contains over 13 million square feet of net industrial rentable space, making it one of just two submarkets in Austin with at least 10 million square feet, the other being North Austin. With 973,650 square feet of net absorption in 2021, the Southeast submarket was likewise the most active. More major agreements are predicted in the near future: according to a JLL fourth-quarter report, at least 30 tenants are searching for at least 100,000 square feet of industrial space in the metro.

In the last several years, Central Texas has experienced a rush of large industrial developments. They vary from major projects like the Tesla Inc. factory in eastern Travis County, which is fully operational, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s $17 billion plant in Taylor, to smaller ones like a Hutto facility for water-filtration business Ovivo Inc. Park 183, located at 8015 Burleson Road, will have a total area of 950,000 square feet when finished. Trammell Crow Co. of Dallas and Clarion Partners LLC of New York are developing the industrial park.

In January, the third phase of the construction, which included the 162,786-square-foot Building 3 and American Canning's Building 5, was completed. Last year Move Solutions, located in Dallas rented 107,537 square feet of Building 3. FedEx, Home Trends and Design, and Architectural Division 8 are among the other tenants of Park 183. A fourth phase, totalling 300,000 square feet, will be completed later this year.