Wilco Premium Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Wilco Premium Beer Tab Top Can

The Wilco Premium Beer 12 oz can is a straight-steel tab top container brewed and packaged in Hammonton, New Jersey. Emerging from the pull-tab era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the can is distinguished by its dynamic sports motif. The front artwork showcases a golfer in mid-swing on a fairway surrounded by caddies and sand traps, driving a large white golf ball into the sky that prominently displays the word "BEER". Fine print along the side margin identifies that the beverage was canned exclusively for Roger Wilco Liquor Stores.

Wilco Premium was created as a private-label store brand for Roger Wilco, a prominent discount liquor retailer in southern New Jersey with locations in towns such as Pennsauken, Palmyra, and Burlington. In an era when independent liquor chains and supermarket outlets sought to capture cost-conscious consumers, proprietary brands allowed retailers to offer low-cost lagers under their own banner. The golf scene gave the discount brew an appealing, leisure-oriented presentation on retail shelves.

The beer was produced by the Eastern Brewing Corporation, the sole long-standing brewery in Hammonton. Founded in 1933 following the repeal of Prohibition as the Eastern Beverage Corporation, the company later operated under several trade entities, including the Colonial Brewing Company. While many regional breweries succumbed to postwar industry consolidation and the expansion of national mega-breweries, Eastern carved out a durable niche by becoming a prolific contract brewer for regional supermarkets, drugstores, and discount retailers. The Hammonton facility maintained operations for decades before finally closing in 1990.

Among breweriana collectors, this can is appreciated both as a prime example of vintage sports-themed can artwork and as an artifact of Mid-Atlantic retail history. Cans from Eastern Brewing Corporation are widely studied by regional specialists, with variations existing in label text formatting, seam placement, and distributor wording across printings.