WORCESTER, Mass. - Every five and a half minutes, Polar Beverages turns out a truckload of soda. Those same cans, bottles and cases, now cost a lot more to get on store shelves. 

"Inflation is real and its ugly and it’s not stopping at all,” said Chris Crowley, executive vice president. “It’s kind of out of control"

Polar is fighting the impacts of inflation, just like everyone else. Crowley said it's not easy doing business these days.

"Supply chain is a giant issue for Polar,” said Crowley. “We buy a lot of cans, we buy sugar, we buy water, we buy carbon dioxide."

And now, they’re paying even more for it. For example, the cost of aluminum, a material they can't go without, is almost double than it was two years ago.

"It got up to $2 a pound,” said Crowley. “Which from 70 cents is a lot when you're buying two billion cans and for every penny it goes up, it costs us $480,000"

And despite what they say is the rising cost of doing business in Massachusetts, Polar's manufacturing locally isn't down. They are running out of warehouse space, filling it up as fast as they can get it. 

"We make 4500 different items,” said Crowley. “I think we have 9, maybe 11 buildings in Worcester. The logistical challenge of finding a home for everything and just moving it once and having the costumer pick it up from that location is challenging, but our guys are very, very good at that"

And when customers do go pick up their favorite soda or seltzer, Crowley said they might not see the same deals they used to.

"So we are just trying to be disciplined and have very fair pricing but not unrealistic,” said Crowley. “Trying to stabilize and get security, become the drink of choice for people because it's really the best stuff."​