Rochester Mills Co.’s Whitlam Label

Rochester Mills Co. Whitlam Label

Last month, we shared a post about entering the craft beer market. You can read the article. In that article, we mentioned a local brewery we had just started working with. We are pleased to announce that Rochester Mills Co. is our first customer in this market. We want to take this opportunity to tell you about this great company and our journey from our first meeting to the present day.

Background

Rochester Mills Co. opened in 1998 in downtown Rochester, Michigan, in the historic Western Knitting Mill. The owners wanted to preserve the original character of the building by keeping the original hardwood floors, beams, columns, and the exposed brick walls.

Rochester Mills Co. Whitlam LabelRochester Mills Co. Whitlam Label
Fast forward to today, and Rochester Mills Beer Co. is one of the largest brewpubs to produce beer in Michigan (brewing over 1,500 barrels of beer annually!), which led to the opening of their production brewery in Auburn Hills, Michigan. If you haven’t been to Rochester Mills Co., we recommend you make the trip and sample their great selection. Our favorite has been the Christmas Roast Milkshake Stout, their barrel-aged coffee milk stout. It pairs well with sitting around the fireplace and listening to Bing Crosby.

Rochester Mills Co. Whitlam Label

The meeting that kick-started this relationship

Our newly hired Quality Manager, Bruce, arranged to meet a friend at Rochester Mills Co. taproom to discuss his new job. Over the course of the evening, Bruce, who is a craft beer connoisseur, struck up a conversation with David Youngman, Director of Marketing for Rochester Mills Co. Bruce told him about Whitlam and asked if he would be open to a discussion about purchasing their labels from a Michigan based company. Since Rochester Mills is always open to partnering up with local businesses, he agreed to a meeting.

During the meeting, we educated David on Whitlam’s capabilities and leveraged the advantages of buying local. He allowed us to run their limited-edition Halloween beer label, “Blood Red Undead Ale.”  David was impressed by the quality of his labels, our competitive pricing, being easy to work with, the array of materials we have to offer, and the opportunity to work with a great local company.

Present Day

Since that initial meeting, we have produced a variety of their labels ranging from Halloween edition red ale to the Christmas edition stout. All can be found in their pub, production facility, and local grocery and convenience stores. Our journey into the beer market has just begun, but we are eager and excited about our future growth with Rochester Mills.