Field note
How do you
choose a co-packer?
Most brands pick on price and availability, then spend two years paying for it. The decision is really about capability match, and it is knowable before you sign anything.
Start with capability, not cost
A co-packer either can or cannot run your product safely at your format and shelf life. That is a binary, and it is upstream of every commercial conversation. Hot fill, tunnel pasteurisation, HPP, cold fill with preservatives and aseptic are not interchangeable, and a plant that is excellent at one can be genuinely unable to deliver another.
Work out what your liquid requires before you shortlist, not after. If you don't know yet, that's the first problem to solve — and it is cheaper to solve it on paper than on someone's line.
What to qualify, in order
Non-negotiable
- Process capability for your fill and preservation method
- Food safety certification — SQF, BRC or equivalent, current
- Regulatory standing — FDA registration, TTB permit if alcohol
- Process authority relationship — and willingness to work to a filed process
- MOQ you can actually sell through
Decides the relationship
- Category experience — have they run liquid like yours, not just cans like yours
- Real capacity — scheduling honesty beats a good rate
- QA depth — who signs off, what gets documented, what happens on a deviation
- Procurement — do they buy packaging, or is that yours to source
- Geography — freight lanes to your suppliers and your 3PL
- Communication — who answers when a run goes sideways at 2am
Questions that separate operators from brochures
- What is your assumed yield on a format like mine, and what happens commercially if we miss it?
- Who is my process authority, and have you run to a filed process for this preservation method before?
- What is realistically on your schedule, and what is the lead time from PO to run?
- What do you need from me, by when, before you will put me on the calendar?
- Walk me through the last time a run went wrong. What happened, and who paid?
That last one is the most useful question in the set. A co-packer who answers it candidly is telling you how they will behave when it is your run. A co-packer who says it has never happened is either very new or not being straight with you.
A red flag worth naming
Vagueness about minimums. If a co-packer will not commit to an MOQ in writing early, it is usually because the number is higher than the conversation has implied, and they would rather tell you after you have invested in the relationship.
Qualify them while they qualify you
Good co-packers are selective, and that is a feature. The plants worth running with are evaluating whether you have a formula that holds, packaging decisions that are made, funding for the full run, and somewhere for the product to go afterwards. A brand that arrives prepared gets better terms, better scheduling and a more honest conversation about fit.
Where this comes from
Co-packer selection is a recurring subject on DrinkUp Live, the beverage operations podcast I co-host — including with co-packers describing what makes them decline a brand.
Need a shortlist pressure-tested?
The Alias Pilot includes a feasibility read and up to two partner introductions. If you already have candidates, Alias Advisory gives you an operator on call for the call before the decision.
Written by Adam Smith, beverage operations consultant and founder of Alias Advising.