Embracing Change – Starting Fresh

Located in a city famous for its towering ski slopes, Silver King Beverage is scaling its operation to new heights in its production level and efficiencies. The company – formerly known as VoBev – has recently undergone a transformation at its Salt Lake City, Utah facility thanks to new ownership, leadership, and a focus on building a culture of mutual support and growth.  

The company opened its doors in 2020 and currently specializes in the processing and packaging of non-alcoholic beverages such as sparkling waters, flavored waters, and energy drinks. The co-packer is unique in that its production can provide an end-to-end solution – from can creation, design, beverage formulation, filling, to final packaging and multi-packaging. According to Silver King, it is the first in North America to bring can-making, filling, and shipping into one full-service facility.

The company currently has commissioned two Krones turnkey high speed canning lines, each capable of handling 72,000 cans per hour, complete with beverage processing, packaging, and multi-packaging equipment. Perfect for upstart companies and specialty flavors, Silver King has also invested in a smaller Krones line which has been specifically designed for situations where massive production runs are not required. It contains a Craftmate filler capable of handling approximately 250 cans per minute (15,000 per hour). “Silver King is really a one-stop-shop for your RTD beverage needs,” says Miriah Manzanares, Operations Manager. “We have every available type of machinery that we need here to help produce the next great idea.” 

New Brand, New Vision

With new ownership came new ideas and approaches. When beverage industry veteran John Sacksteder became CEO in 2024, he brought with him a fresh perspective on rejuvenating the company.  

 “After the acquisition, it felt like a new beginning and we wanted to start over,” says Sacksteder. “We actually held an employee naming contest where we received over 400 different suggestions. After narrowing that down to five, we chose Silver King. Ultimately, it has some local flavor and speaks to what we do here.”

A new name and logo were just the start. As COO Neil Nersesian explains, getting the Silver King team members onboard with the new vision was a key factor in launching the new brand: “We did a lot of work to align incentives to make sure that every single person that's working in this plant understands what the goals are of the company, and that they're aligned with it very transparently, from the top to the bottom.”

One key goal of the new leadership was to maximize production efficiencies and take their efforts and output to the next level. “The Krones equipment is amazing here. It's really robust, really suitable for our production purposes and very flexible,” says Nersesian. “With this great equipment, we had a lot of opportunities to improve our operation, to create better routines, and to deliver better, service to our customers. And we did that through people, process, and technology and adapting to the way that we needed to operate.” 

And the new leadership’s efforts have already paid off. In just a few short months, the company is seeing real results, in part due to their partnership with Krones. Within one year and even with all of the changeovers, packaging complexities and pack sizes, they managed to improve their efficiencies thanks to Krones’ equipment and expertise.

Processing and Problem Solving

A large added value for the company’s customers is the ability to formulate and reproduce recipes in-house as part of their R&D department. Working closely with Krones Process Group North America, Silver King can produce consistent, high-quality recipes and syrups – from small-run specialty flavors to mass produced beverages.  

“The Krones equipment and automation allow us to help the batching team produce the product exactly the way we're looking for, as opposed to relying on any manual functions,” says Will Cayler, Batching and R&D Manager.  

In terms of support, Cayler says he appreciates the Remote Support option, in particular. An example was when they had problems running a specific pasteurization protocol that a flavor required for a new customer, so they contacted Krones for support. “It was pretty easy to have the processing experts from Krones come in virtually, set it up, and have us test in person. And we were able to do that very quickly. A lot of our customer expectations are pretty high for producing a very consistent, high-quality product,” he continues. “And without this equipment and support, I don't think we'd be able to meet some of those customer demands.”

Finding Value in Variety

With the ever-changing tastes of beverage consumers, Silver King is well poised for the growing multi-pack market as well. Complete with a Variopac Pro packer, a Modupal palletizer, and three separate Robogrip packing/palletizing robots, Silver King’s investments in variety pack technology are offering the ultimate in customer flexibility with solutions that are fast, accurate, and environmentally friendly.  

“Variety packs are growing. Ten to fifteen years ago, there were a few... but nobody really talked about them as part of the regular business,” says Nersesian. “For us, variety pack is growing as a percentage of our business, so it's a huge opportunity.”

In conjunction with Krones, Silver King has developed a unique, more sustainable solution in which loose cans are placed on a reusable plastic tray where Krones Robogrip robots remove them from that plastic tray and place them on the variety pack line with the Variopac to create the end package. 

“The technology removes the need for any of the extraneous material, like cardboard trays and temporary packaging, that you don't need in the finished package,” says Nersesian. “And doing this creates a better, more sustainable operation that, uses fewer natural resources and allows us to deliver our customers their product in a more efficient way.”

Hands-On Training and Support

Not only has Krones’ technology served to provide quality, efficient equipment, but from day one, the training and support teams at Krones have been on hand to help Silver King with the setup, maintenance, and overall operations of their equipment and technology. The hands-on training was conducted both in-house, and at the Krones Academy in Franklin, WI.

Past, Present, and Future - Primed for Growth

From its innovative facility, dedication to efficiency, and renewed commitment to its employees, it is evident that there is a sense of pride behind all they do. But Nersesian claims that it’s the dedication of the people that is the driving force behind Silver King’s success. “I would say when I first arrived, there were a lot of team members who weren't really sure about the changes,” he recalls. “They may have asked themselves: ‘Did we bite off more than we can chew?’ And then as we started to work together to improve efficiency and drive customer service, we started giving each other reasons to believe.”  

It is these strong beliefs that are driving Silver King’s vision for the future. With a stellar operation and room to grow, the company looks to cement its position as co-packing royalty. “Our goal is to be the most efficient and provide the best service to our customers of any co-packing facility in the US,” Nersesian adds. “As we grow and take on more, we're going to need to be more efficient. We're going to need to make changes to our production line and to our capabilities that allow us to give the consumers what they want. And we couldn't do that without a partner like Krones, who's going to be around to help us make those changes and be flexible to the needs of our customers.”