From Agency Sketch to 6,000 Units: Building Redd's Apple Ale's Retail Display
Introduction
When Molson Coors wanted a retail display for Redd's Apple Ale that shoppers couldn't miss, the brief started as a rough sketch from the brand's ad agency — an apple-shaped silhouette with four-sided shelving and bold "REDD'S" branding. From there, Franklin Display Group's in-house design and engineering team took over, carrying the concept from first draft to a nationwide retail rollout without ever handing it off to an outside vendor.
Turning a Concept Into a Buildable Display
Franklin's engineers met with the Molson Coors team in Chicago to translate the agency's sketch into a structure that could actually be manufactured and shipped at scale. The result: a two-tier, apple-shaped merchandiser built around a powder-coated tube, sheet metal, and wire core, with vacuum-formed apple top and base sections. Each unit was engineered to hold two full levels of 12-pack product — 8 units per shelf, 16 per display — at a 36″ footprint and roughly 69″ tall, with an estimated shipping weight near 360 lbs. A photorealistic render, including two base options, went to Molson Coors for sign-off before a single unit was built.
Engineered for the Realities of Retail
The finished display had to work as well on a truck and in a stockroom as it did on the sales floor. Franklin designed the unit to ship knocked-down, keeping freight costs down, and assemble at store level with just a handful of bolts, wing nuts, and a single supplied wrench. Header and footer graphics were applied as decals, and price-tag holders snap directly into the shelf — small details that add up to a faster, less error-prone setup for store crews nationwide.
On-Time Fulfillment at Scale
Design and engineering were only half the job. Franklin manufactured and shipped 6,000 completed units across roughly 103 truckloads over a two-month rolling schedule — without a single late or missed shipment. That reliability is what let Molson Coors hit its retail set dates across the country, proving the display could scale as reliably as it looked good in a boardroom render.
