The Two Largest Keg Services Companies Join Forces to Revolutionize the Global Draught Beer Supply Chain
When it comes to exporting beer across the Atlantic, brewers have been forced to compromise on either quality or cost. They send plastic one-way kegs that may not offer the quality and reliability brewers seek, or they ship expensive stainless steel kegs and incur high loss rates or inefficient logistics.
For the first time in brewing history this is about to change. The two largest keg solutions providers in the world, who provide stainless steel kegs and keg related services to brewers in the US and the UK, have joined forces to eliminate the need to compromise. UK’s Close Brothers Brewery Rentals (CBBR) and US-based MicroStar Logistics are collaborating to offer brewers the flexibility and efficiency whilst maintaining quality that comes with a combined scale of over 4 million kegs. This new collaboration, called beerQX, will provide a high-quality transatlantic cold-chain controlled bulk transport service designed by brewers for brewers. US craft beer will now arrive in the UK faster and fresher than ever before and UK and European brewers will now be able to get their beer to the US more efficiently than ever.
“The global beer industry is evolving rapidly and one clear theme across nearly all brewers is an interest in higher quality, more efficient export solutions,” said Paul Sherman, Managing Director of CBBR. “As we got to know MicroStar, we were impressed with the complementary nature of our businesses and quickly realised that by working together we could offer unparalleled beer export solutions.”
“Both MicroStar and CBBR were created to help brewers grow and beerQX is a natural extension of that mission,” says MicroStar’s President and CEO, Michael Hranicka. “In addition to relying on us to meet their existing keg needs in their home markets, through beerQX, brewers can now benefit from our combined expertise and dense network of stainless steel kegs to get their beer to new markets across the Atlantic.” beerQX expect to begin serving brewers in the US and UK starting in the first half of 2017 and will look to quickly expand into additional European markets shortly after.
Email info@beerQX.com to learn more.
About Close Brothers Brewery Rentals
Founded in 2007, CBBR manages a fleet of over one million long-term rental casks and kegs and operates ECasks and Craft EKegs, one of the largest pooled-keg programs in the world. CBBR constantly innovates to support the brewing sector through the provision of new keg and cask solutions. CBBR Container Services repairs and services over three and a half million containers. It also supports the direct warranty management of keg extractors. www.closebreweryrentals.co.uk
About MicroStar Logistics
Celebrating their 20th Anniversary this year, Denver-based MicroStar Logistics is the leading diversified keg solutions provider, controlling the largest independently-owned pool of kegs in the world numbering ~3-million kegs MicroStar’s Keg Management division leverages two pools of kegs — KegCraft-branded kegs for midsize, regional brewers and MicroStar-branded kegs for large, national brewers — to deliver cost-effective outsourced keg solutions. MicroStar’s Quality Services division, formerly a Tosca company, is the leading keg repair and maintenance operation helping to maintain the quality and lengthen the lifespans of some of the largest keg fleets in the world. For additional information, visit www.MicrostarLogistics.com.
