Beverage producers and distributors, like most business people, focus on the bottom line.

A trip to the local retail store can be an enlightening experience. Because of the considerable amount of SKU proliferation, a retail shelf might look quite different from one month to the next.

Last year was a record year for automated guided vehicles (AGVs), with AGV system sales reaching $140 million, according to the Material Handling Institute (MHI).

Like many companies in the beverage industry, Wirtz Beverage Illinois was faced with the challenge of expansion to support increased demand.

In the interest of creating a more efficient warehouse, reducing cost, and improving speed, 74 percent of warehousing, manufacturing and distributing professionals surveyed last fall by the MHI Automation Alliance said they are planning or considering an automated project for their facility, according to MHI, Charlotte, N.C.

According to a recent report by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), the market for labels is increasing year-over-year by as much as 5.2 percent. 

As New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, Colo., celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2011, the craft brewery had grown from brewing 60 cases a week at the home of co-founders Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan in 1991, to selling more than 700,000 barrels of beer a year.