White Rock

Source: Food and Drink Digital

Date :17/09/2007 07:07:10

White hot White Rock

One Maine-based distiller is growing its product line, business, and showing that it’s possible to build multiple national brands from this small state

Written by James Buchanan & Produced by Michael Magno

As the drinking public’s tastes evolve and change, White Rock Distilleries Inc. is working to stay a step ahead by offering new and fresh takes on tried and true spirits and liqueurs.

White Rock was originally founded in 1937 in the wake of Prohibition in the U.S. It wasn’t until 1971 that the company was purchased by Ray Coulombe. At that point, White Rock had three employees, a 10,000 sq. ft. plant, and was selling 25,000 cases per year.

However, Coulombe saw that there was great potential for the company, which is located along the banks of the Androscoggin River 25 miles from the Maine coast in Lewiston.

Over the next 30 years, two generations of Coulombes grew the company through a combination of acquisitions, expansion, and the development of new technologies.

Currently, White Rock’s product line includes more than 150 brands, sales of more than 2 million cases world-wide, and a state-of-the-art facility on 10 acres, with six bottling lines and capacity of more than 5 million cases.

White Rock also has import agreements with several international distillers, which include Morrison Bowmore Distilleries Ltd. of Scotland, Louis Royer Cognac of France, and Quintessential Gin of England.

According to the company’s website, not resting on its laurels, White Rock Distilleries constantly strives to add excellence to its family of branded offerings.

These brands include scotches such as Bowmore and McClelland Single Malt.

Prepared cocktails include brands and products such as Ice Box Long Island Ice Tea and margaritas; and Mancini’s Cosmopolitan and lemon drop.

Vodkas include the Three Olives Vodka product line, which is the company’s latest product offering.

Cordials and Liqueurs include Amaretto E. Dolce, Baja brands, Ice 101, Samballa, Sambuca, schnapps, among others.

Canadian whiskeys include Canadian Regal, Adams Private Stock, and Adams Antique Whiskey.

Rums come from Ron Virgin brand, Barbarosa Rum, Coconut Jack, and Cabana Bay.

Tequillas include Cantera Tequilla, El Chico Tequilla and Vera Cruz brand.

White Rock has also sought to find new ways to present and innovate on its products. One example is the company’s introduction of its Pinnacle Vodka brand in a 1.75 liter sized translucent blue PET bottle. Partnering with White Rock was Amcor PET.

According to published reports, the updated bottle design helped the company trim costs while preserving the brand’s unique image.

Prior to the switch, the bottles were made of glass and produced in Italy, shipped to a facility in Montreal where they were given a distinctive blue hue,and then sent to the U.S. where they were incorporated into White Rock’s bottling line.

Though Amcor PET is based in Australia, the company has three divisions located in the U.S. — Ann Arbor, Mich., Mundelein, Ill., and Buena Park, Calif.

Further, according to Amcor’s website,the company is one of the world’s top three global packaging companies with extensive experience producing PET plastic bottles.

White Rock has also shown some innovation with regard to its warehousing capabilities.

According to a story in Food & Drug Packaging, prior to 1996 White Rock loaded pallets of its products by hand. Given the varied nature of White Rock’s production schedule,as well as the range of case sizes and weights, loading the pallets manually had become a time consuming process as the company continued to grow.

Automating the process with a robotic system was seen as the way to go. In particular, White Rock looked for a system that could maximize use of limited space and could be easily programmable.

The solution came in the form of a robot palletizer from Columbia/Okura LLC.