Paint over question

[stringsx24now]

Reading over the nice article in the latest BCCA magazine about paint-overs, a thought struck me. It may be an easy question to answer, but the more I think about it, it may be more complicated than we think.

The article mentioned, and it is a trope I have heard of many times, is that when a brewery wants/needs to change their label, they have stockpiles of already painted flats ready to be configured into can shape to be filled just sitting around. Rather than waste this asset, the flats are re-painted with the correct new design. That is how we get all these paint-overs that are found currently. Seems logical.

Except, I don't think it is breweries that do this.
I think it is the can manufacturer that is driving these changes. The breweries obviously communicate to the can manufacturer about the need for the new label, but the breweries are not in the business of painting. It is the can manufacturer that has stock-piles of flats, some painted, some not (perhaps?), and when a brewery puts in an order, they fulfill it with what they have on-hand. If they need to repaint some flats, they do.
What evidence is there? Just some theories:
First, if it really was the breweries controlling this, we would have many more paint-overs with just different generations of the same brand underneath or on top of the older label. Instead, from what I can see from postings and discussions, it seems like the vast majority of the paint-overs are of labels/brands from unrelated breweries, sometimes not even beer-on-beer, but pop over beer or beer over pop.
If indeed that this is the case, that it is the manufacturer was driving the process and not the breweries, it brings up another question: maybe the breweries did not know or realize that they were using paint-over stock? The brewery ordered a new supply of flats with their label printed on, and the can manufacturer supplied the painted flats, not telling the brewery what was underneath?
Or maybe the brewery got a slight discount on the product for agreeing to use the over-painted sheets?

Just some thoughts. Nothing real earth-shattering, and maybe it was all fairly obvious to everyone but me.

Comments???

[Joe Older]

I think you are exactly right. Steel (3 piece) cans are manufactured by canning companies as large flat sheets that are then painted, cut up and rolled into cans with bottoms or tops applied after they are rolled. They are then delivered to breweries that way so they can be filled and have a top or bottom applied. I don't believe they can be repainted once they have been rolled into a can. So it has to be the can company with the large flat sheets that are already painted that then repaint them for another use. Why? Maybe an order got cancelled so they repaint the sheets for a different customer.

[Ziphippie]

This is posted somewhere in the paintover thread. I have this contract with three Bulldog/Acme Gold Label rubouts- still looking for the other 1,399,997 from Kankegs. Ziphippie