January 2014
| Business World Magazine | 171
Ball Corporation – the world’s largest bev-
erage canning company. A decision which,
Melis says, triggered a whole new necessity
for educating consumers on the merits of
cans.
“When we put that hoppy Dales Pale
Ale in a can, it was laughable,” he says. “We
weren’t just talking about the flavor of the
beer or the price of the beer. It was,
hey, the can is better for the beer, it’s
better for the beer drinker, it’s better
for the environment. When you put
the beer in front of somebody and
have them crack it open, and when
they smell the hops come out they
do that double-take and then you
have their attention and you can ed-
ucate them about the advantages of a
can. Education has always been a part of how
we go to market and it gave us a mission.”
The company’s good-life empire broke
new ground in 2012 when it opened a brew-
ery in Brevard, N.C., a town of 8,000 people
in the state’s rural southwest that’s been nick-
named “land of waterfalls.”
