Local beverage start-up, Vista, has opened its own manufacturing facility, after two successful years in business. Funded by a major investment deal that closed earlier this year, the new facility will help reduce costs and maintain tighter quality control amongst other benefits. The production facility is located in East Tamaki and has provided four new jobs as well as a full-time production manager.
The new facility can run up to 800,000 cans per month, meaning that quantity-based limiting factors are no longer an issue. This includes contract manufacturing for other brands, for instance. Furthermore, the new facility will entirely avoid PET packaging, a significant step in the ongoing battle against plastics and non-recyclables.
“Contract manufacturing is generally the only viable option for a start-up, as the costs involved in building a manufacturing facility are huge, but previously there was little competition in pricing and long lead times, with only a couple of contract manufacturers operating in New Zealand,” said Scott Day, Vista and Free Flow co-founder. “We hope to provide an affordable, reliable contract manufacturing service for Kiwi beverage start-ups and we’ve had plenty of interest already, with one RTD brand contracted to start manufacturing its product in our facility later this month.”
The facility opening comes months after an investment deal was struck with property developer and investor Kurt Gibbons.
