CAN DO ATTITUDE: Duluth-based cider company quadruples production

DULUTH, MN. (Northern News Now) - Wild State Cider recently moved into a new Duluth production facility, allowing them to increase production capacity four-fold.

The cider company has been serving cans of their alcoholic drinks since 2019, originally producing the cider in the Lincoln Park neighborhood’s craft district.

They still have their taproom in the neighborhood, but moved their massive cider tanks to a new warehouse in West Duluth.

“So after we opened, after about two years, we kind of outgrew our current location and so the last year, year and a half has been searching for a new production space in the neighborhood, we wanted to keep it pretty local,” Allison Longley, the Director of Operations for Wild State Cider, said.

Longley and a team of about 30 people keep the operation going each day.

Since moving to the new location, they gained about 60,000 square feet of production space.

“When we moved from the Lincoln Park location, to this location, we have to completely shut down our operations to empty out the tanks,” she said.

Since the move though, they’ve ramped up production.

“We’re doing our first few batches of cider now,” Longley said.

Not only did they gain more space, but also the ability to quadruple in size.

“Annually, we can produce about 500,000 gallons [of cider],” she said.

To put that into perspective, that totals out to about 12,000,000 12 oz. cans of cider.

Not only did the company move its production headquarters in the last month, but it also made a huge rebrand.

“So we are also rebranding all of our packaging and our logo so you’re gonna see that look a little bit different pretty soon here,” she said.

The rebrand has allowed the company to become a bit more eco-friendly.

“We currently use plastic holders,” Longley said. “Those are unfortunately not recyclable..so we bought a box machine, so we’re able to put all of our four packs into cartons now, which is recyclable cardboard.”

The company is a One Percent for the Planet company.

Where 1% of their sales go to non-profits and projects to reduce carbon emissions and to protect the environment.

“We only have one planet, so we want to preserve it as much as possible,” she said. “There’s the ability with a company like ours to produce a lot of waste and we really try to keep that to a minimum.”

With the move, the company has more space in its Lincoln Park taproom to cater to more customers.

“We’re keeping the current taproom and we’re just going to expand the space...we’re exploring a lot of opportunities, she said.

Those opportunities are hopefully going to pay off soon, according to Longley.

“We have such a great team of people here, we’re producing a really awesome, natural, craft beverage that we’re just so happy that people in the market are enjoying it,” she said. “And, you know, we just can’t keep up!”