The Lean Brewer’s Data: Unlocking Copacking for Category Expansion

Before a beverage hits the shelf or makes it into someone’s weekend cooler, big decisions are made. Agile brewers don’t just decide how much hops should go into the liquid, but they consider whether they need to invest in more equipment or borrow someone else’s to brew their products. They assess how they can meet consumers’ changing demands with the assets they already own. In sum, they ask themselves what needs to change and how they can do it in a cost-effective way.

The foundation of a lean brewery—its ability to streamline operations, maximize ROI of their assets, and achieve sustainable growth—is built upon its centralized and actionable data. This data can guide breweries to thoughtfully evaluate copacking—becoming a facility that produces and packages beverages for other companies—as a strategic way to expand their product line.

Key Data Indicators for Copacking

Several key data indicators can help your brewery decide whether copacking is the right strategic move. They include production capacity and utilization, production schedule, equipment and workforce costs, equipment idle time, COGS breakdown, category sales trends (on-premise and off-premise), and distributor sales for each product category.

Analyzing this comprehensive information lets your team reassess whether copacking could be right for you and which categories you should invest in, prioritizing products of high growth over underperforming ones. Specifically, when the data highlights under-used tanks, ample idle time, or existing capacity for new products, they point to a prime opportunity to consider producing through copacking. Copacking lets the lean brewery leverage those assets and capture profit growth by investing in booming segments.

Copacking for High-Growth Categories

While entering new and unfamiliar markets may be daunting and risky, copacking serves as a strategic lever to reduce that fear and diversify your brewery’s revenue streams. And there’s no better time to begin copacking in popular consumer drinks that distributors and retailers are looking for producers to stock—Delta-9 THC drinks, nonalcoholic beverages, ready-to-drink cocktails, and functional beverages.

Delta-9 THC Drinks

Delta-9 (D9) drinks are infused with the major psychoactive compound, Delta-9, which is the most abundant form of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). They are promoted as a way to experience the effects of THC in a controlled and enjoyable way. Consumers increasingly want that experience without the next-day sluggishness. Since the 2018 Farm Bill transformed hemp policy in the United States, the D9 THC beverage market has experienced exponential growth with the category reaching around $382 million in sales in 2024 and expecting to grow to nearly $750 million by 2029 in the United States, according to Brightfield Group.

Nonalcoholic Beverages

Given the changing customer desire to be more health-conscious, nonalcoholic beverages (NAs) are seeing significant expansion as well. In fact, Innova Market Insights found that low and no-alcohol product launches in the United States grew by 11 percent in the past five years. There’s no signs of slowing down either as an IWSR report reveals that the U.S. NA market’s compound annual growth rate is forecast to grow by 18 percent from 2024 to 2028. NA beer is the primary volume driver, with NA spirits and NA RTDs following closely behind.

Ready-to-Drink Cocktails

Driven by a rising demand for convenience and portability, customers are turning to ready-to-drink cocktails (RTDs) for effortless enjoyment—social hangouts with friends, outdoor activities, and solo at-home consumption. The popularity of RTDs is ultimately reflected in Grand View Research’s report, which states that the U.S. RTD market size was valued at $903.4 million in 2024. More importantly, it’s projected to grow at a 15.3 percent compound annual growth rate from 2025 to 2030.

Functional Beverages

A functional beverage provides health and wellness benefits from such functional ingredients as caffeine, probiotics, and bioactive proteins. With customers’ rising focus on personal fitness and lifestyle, functional drinks with targeted health benefits are also making waves in the market. According to Verified Market Research, data show that the popularity of functional drinks will push its market to grow at a 6.9 percent compound annual growth rate from 2024 to 2031.

Conduct a Tech Check for Copacking

Copacking offers your brewery a strategic opportunity to unlock growth by entering and capitalizing on these thriving segments. But the use of your data extends far beyond simply deciding whether copacking is the right move. With centralized data and established copacking operations, you can track the performance of your newly created products against market-wide benchmarks. You can also identify consumer-demand trends through distributor insights or retail data. Last but not least, you can leverage data to closely monitor gross margin and profit.

Becoming a lean brewery isn’t just about cutting costs; it’s about using data to choose the smartest path forward. Given market trends and consumer preferences, the data can reveal that the road of growth is investing in copacking and venturing into popular beverage categories.

So it’s important to consider the following:

• Do you have ample, real-time, and insightful data that can guide your decision to copack or not?
• If you decide to copack, are your existing tech and data tools sufficient to handle those operations?

If you’re limited with your existing tech/data stack and are looking to revamp it to unlock greater growth, check out Encompass’s Production Cloud features and demo.