Inside the Windsor plant that makes 2 billion beer and other drink cans each year
Jacob Laxen,
Published 3:00 p.m. MT Oct. 20, 2017
The Anheuser-Busch Metal Container Corp. facility celebrated its 30th anniversary Thursday.
Thursday was a rare day at the Anheuser-Busch Metal Container Corp. in Windsor.
The normal 24/7 production schedule at the 105,000-square foot facility was temporarily halted so employees could celebrate the company's 30th anniversary. Typically the plant at 1201 Metal Container Court only shuts down three days a year for Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday breaks.
The plant now makes more than 2 billion 12-ounce aluminum cans each year. Production has increased by about 35 percent since the facility opened in 1987.
"(Anheuser-Busch Metal Container Corporation) is an outstanding example of the business we look to bring to Windsor and keep in our town," Windsor Mayor Kristie Melendez said at the ceremony. "They are an industry leader."
Cans manufactured at the plant are made out of 27,000-pound aluminum coils that are 5.5 miles long if unraveled. The Anheuser-Busch Metal Container Corp. goes through one coil about every seven hours.
Cameras along the production check the insides of every can for quality assurance.
The majority of cans produced in Windsor are sold to Budweiser facilities, including the Fort Collins brewery at 2351 Busch Drive that produces about 10 million barrels of beer a year.
Other cans are produced for third-party sales with Pepsi, among other large accounts.
Parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev has invested about $14 million into the Windsor plant since 2009. The site is one of the company's five canning plants across the country.
"Constant management of the facility is why we are here still producing 30 years later," said plant manager Jeff Scott.
Scott's challenges in Windsor are more mechanical than the biological ones he faced earlier in his career as a brewer.
Scott has worked his way up in the company, including previous work as a brewer in Jacksonville, Florida, and as brewmaster in Houston.
"While I'm not in commercials like I once was and don't go to all the events and festivals, we are all brewers in this company," Scott said. "We all have a passion for beer. We are all part of the process."
The Anheuser-Busch Metal Container Corp. employs 110 full-time workers, 11 of whom have worked at the facility since it opened.
Anheuser-Busch InBev has about 1,500 total Colorado employees. The company has about 17,000 employee scattered throughout 49 states nationwide.
State Sen. Vicki Marble, R-Fort Collins, and state Rep. Perry Buck, R-Windsor, were among the area politicians who toasted the 30th anniversary Thursday in the Anheuser-Busch Metal Container Corp. parking lot.
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