This is a fun activity. For two years, Axel and Maxime Girard, 30 and 33 years old, have been mobile auctioneers. A strange reconversion for these two brothers from Nantes, the youngest of whom, a former landscaper, is above all a beer enthusiast. “I had noticed that canned beer was arriving in France, well after Canada and the United States where there are almost no bottles left there,” says the general director of Fill me up. We therefore decided to create the first mobile canning company in France. From 2022, we have been called from everywhere! Just with word of mouth, it exploded in 2023, a very big year for us. » The company claims nearly 1.5 million boxes already filled, many of which will be drunk this weekend on the occasion of Nantes under pressurefestival dedicated to craft beer.
It must be said that if binouze in a can did not have a very good image a few years ago, the tide has turned with the development of microbreweries. Today, more and more brands are choosing this type of container, which would only have advantages. “It is completely airtight and opaque, which allows us to keep the aromas as much as possible and to make well-hopped recipes,” explains Axel Girard. The can is also very interesting for transport and CO2 emissions because it takes up less space and is much lighter than a bottle. » But above all, it is the design that appeals: black, white or gray, in 33 or 44 cl, it allows breweries to stick large labels, whose graphics are always more careful… and sought after by customers.
Directly to the customer
Axel and Maxime had spotted the idea: drinking canned beer is hype, but you still need to have the means and the ability to make it happen. With their mobile machine, described as “quite expensive and very technical to handle”, they therefore offer this service to small (and numerous) breweries which do not have a canning line, or even no bottling line. All. Like some competitors now, they travel across France with their truck, to carry out this last operation directly at the customer’s premises. “For a brewer, packaging is a very important moment, a day of celebration but also of stress,” says Axel Girard. We must be irreproachable in terms of hygiene, crimping, the process…” And in particular regarding the oxygen level, which must be as low as possible to avoid disaster.
But very soon, winegrowers will also have the opportunity to call on the two brothers, who have expanded their team with the hiring of an employee this summer. A new machine, this time for canning wine (in thinner cans, called slim), is expected in the coming days. “There is a huge demand in the United States, where we are looking for good wine and where this format does not bother us,” believes the general director. I think that in France, it will be difficult to take off, but for export alone we already have large volumes ahead of us. We have already made white, red, and rosé! »