Sure, you can turn your nose up at wine that comes in a can. But you’d be missing out on a serious growth category within the wine industry.

It isn’t just the buzz that “alternative packaging” is receiving these days, with its attention on variations like boxed wine, recycled materials, single-serving containers, and wine in a can.

It’s more the business case behind it that is so persuasive and eye-catching.

That translated to $16.4 million in annual revenue.

Union Wine Co. — a category leader based at a manufacturing complex in Tualatin, Oregon, outside Portland — posted a 3-year growth of 168% and will be launching two new products this year alone.

When Cathy Huyghe , spoke with Union Wine Co.’s CEO and winemaker Ryan Harms two years ago, he spoke about how wine in a can “put us out there in the conversation,” posting impressive reach on social media thanks to creative and edgy campaigns like “Pinkies Down” that were designed to reach their target audience of a young, social media-savvy demographic who connects with non-traditional concepts.

The momentum of Harms’ growth rate then — annualized at 35% — has continued strong into 2017. I spoke with him about maintaining momentum, competitors in the marketplace, and rolling out those two new products later this year. Here are excerpts from our Q&A.

Union Wine Co. has been growing by leaps and bounds. First, what’s driving that growth? And second, how do you maintain the momentum? The development of the new category is definitely what’s been driving growth. Every time we think that consumers are broadly aware of wine in a can, we realize there’s a huge number of folks that haven’t been exposed to the idea yet. For us right now it’s filling in markets and being able to produce enough wine for 365 days a year.

Read more at source: Forbes