Producer

Crown Holdings

CCKHQ US · Yardley, Pennsylvaniawebsite ↗

Major global metal packaging manufacturer (NYSE: CCK); 2024 revenue ~$11.9B. Produces aluminum beverage cans, metal food cans (tinplate and aluminum), aerosol cans, and specialty packaging. Crown's Americas Beverage and European Beverage segments (aluminum beverage cans) are its largest divisions, but its Transit Packaging and food can segments serve the pet food market. Crown manufactures food cans including aluminum and tinplate containers used by human food and pet food processors. US food can plants serve major food manufacturers including pet food brands. Crown's beverage can business means it directly competes for the same aluminum sheet that goes into pet food cans — during COVID beverage can demand surge, Crown's food can customers (including pet food) faced capacity constraints. Significant global footprint: 165 plants in 40+ countries.

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Inputs supplied

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Goods downstream

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Facilities

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Stories

What they make

1 input Crown Holdings supplies

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Goods downstream

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What else they do

Business segments

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  • Beverage Cans (Americas + Europe)

    50%
  • Food Cans & Aerosol (Metal Packaging)

    25%
  • Transit Packaging (Signode)

    25%

Intelligence

What's known

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  • Did you know2023

    Crown Holdings serves three structurally unrelated packaging supply chains from the same metal forming and can-making expertise: (1) Consumer beverage — aluminum cans for beer, soda, energy drinks; Crown makes the can that holds a Bud Light and a Monster Energy drink; (2) Pet food — tinplate and aluminum cans for wet cat and dog food; ~22% US aluminum can market share for wet pet food; the metal can format preserves wet meat-based pet food without refrigeration; (3) Industrial transit packaging (via Signode) — steel and plastic strapping used to bundle steel coils, pallets of bricks, and industrial shipments for logistics. A beer can manufacturer, a pet food can manufacturer, and a steel coil strapping manufacturer operate under the same Crown Holdings holding company. The COVID-era beverage can shortage (2020-2022) was driven by at-home alcohol consumption surge; during the same period, pet food can customers faced capacity competition because Crown's aluminum sheet supply was prioritized to fulfill beverage can volume commitments — food can customers were capacity-constrained by the beer can market. Consumer alcohol trends thus became a supply chain variable for pet food packaging.

    Crown Holdings, Inc.
  • Origin2023

    Crown Holdings is literally named after its founding invention: the crown bottle cap. In 1891, William Painter — a Baltimore machinist — invented a corrugated 21-tooth metal cap with a cork gasket that sealed glass beverage bottles by crimping the metal skirt under the bottle lip. Painter patented the 'Crown Cork' in 1892 and founded Crown Cork & Seal Company to manufacture it. Before the crown cap, glass beverage bottles required swing-top wire mechanisms, wax seals, or hand-applied corks — all slow and unreliable at industrial scale. Painter's crown cap enabled the modern beer and soda bottling industry by providing a fast, reliable, low-cost seal. The company grew from bottle caps into tin cans, then aluminum cans, and eventually beverage can manufacturing — all metal packaging extensions of the original metal closure expertise. Crown's 2017 acquisition of Signode Industrial Group (strapping, bundling, transit packaging) for approximately USD 3.9 billion diversified into industrial logistics packaging entirely unrelated to food or beverage — the only major metal packaging company to operate a significant non-packaging industrial materials business.

    Crown Holdings, Inc.