Discounted Cans on Excess Inventory

[DowneastCider]

Hello fellow professional brewers and vintners.

Can anyone share their experiences getting your can supplier (Crown in our case) to give you a discount on excess inventory after making changes to the graphics?

We made some slight changes to our cans recently on 2 different products. Crown notified us that they had excess cans with the old graphics already made and ready to ship. The most they would take off the price was the $4.00 upcharge for less than X pallets and free shipping (not much as we are very close to their production facility). I consider myself a pretty good negotiator but it seemed like they were willing to crush the excess inventory and go with the new graphic before giving me another cent off the price. It seems like they should be willing to give up more.

[Larry Doyle]

Gaphic changes happen all the time. Usually, one runs out the old graphics before running the new graphics. I don't think this concept is hard to understand.
This may be a case of dumb and dumber. First, Crown makes a graphic change, ships you the new cans and still has old inventory. This is dumb.
Next, you feel slighted because Crown isn't offering you a bigger discount on those old cans. This is dumber. If I were Crown I'd crush the cans and tell you to get a new can supplier.
This scenario sounds like amateur night at the brewery.

[TonyT]

I hate to take the side of the big corporation, but you understand that Crown makes like...a zillion cans a year plus millions of other packaging for tons of industry.

Not saying that they shouldn't take care of every customer, but when it comes to "negotating"...they have 100% of the leverage.