British sustainable packaging firm Frugalpac have produced a commemorative paper wine bottle to mark His Royal Highness King Charles III and Her Royal Highness His HxxQueen Camilla’s state visit to Bordeaux on Friday September 22.
The special paper Frugal Bottle is made from 94% recycled cardboard, has a carbon footprint six times lower than a glass bottle is five times lighter and can be recycled again.
It’s three years since the Frugal Bottle launched in June 2020, making it the world’s first commercially available paper bottle for wines, spirits, and olive oils. Frugalpac were invited along with other UK businesses to display their goods at a Franco-British event at Bordeaux’s Place de la Bourse to mark the monarch’s visit.
The commemorative Cardbordeaux 2023 bottle contains the King’s Cypher and the Bordeaux crest on the front and on the back has a message in French to the King and Queen.
It reads – in English – “This is the world's first paper bottle for wines and spirits: the Frugal Bottle. It was designed and manufactured by British sustainable packaging company Frugalpac in Ipswich, Suffolk.
“This Bordeaux-shaped paper bottle is made from 94% recycled cardboard, is five times lighter than a glass bottle with a carbon footprint up to six times lower than that of a glass bottle. This Frugal Bottle, which contains Bordeaux wine, was specially made to commemorate the visit of HRH King Charles III and HRH Queen Camilla to Bordeaux on September 22, 2023.”
Since launching in June 2020 with a red wine from Italian winery Cantina Goccia, the Frugal Bottle is now used by more than 35 drinks brands, in 128 SKUs in 25 countries around the world, including major wine producing nations like France, Spain, Italy, the US, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
They have sold more than 1.8 million paper bottles, saving over 750 tonnes of CO2.
France is the latest country to sell wine in its paper Frugal Bottles. This July it was invited by the British Embassy to display its paper bottles with other British exporters at the Ambassador’s residence to celebrate the King’s Birthday.
Frugalpac, which was recently named SME of the Year at the UK Green Business Awards, currently has at least five serious requests from French companies to buy a Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine and install them in France and 63 other French beverage brands looking to use its paper bottles.
The first French wine in a paper Frugal Bottle was launched by La Bouteille Qui Cartonne and wine producer Château Malijay.
The Mistral Gourmand 2021 Côtes du Rhône cuvée in the Frugal Bottle is on sale in a commercial trial by the retailer Le Petit Ballon. It has already distributed 5,000 of the paper bottles to their wine subscribers and the response has been “excellent.”
La Bouteille Qui Cartonne is now launching at least two other French wines in the paper bottle - the Château La Croix Du Moulin Bordeaux 2020 and the Hauterive 2022 red wine by Domaine La Bouysse.
Also on sale in a Frugal Bottle in France is a French Calvados from Avallen Spirits.
Frugalpac's Bordeaux-shaped bottle is made from 94% recycled paperboard with a food-grade pouch to hold the liquid. Weighing just 83g before filled, it is five times lighter, and has a carbon footprint 84% lower than glass.
As glass bottles account for 40% of a drinks producer’s carbon footprint, drinks producers around the world are switching from carbon-heavy glass bottles, to more sustainable drinks packaging, as they look to reduce their environmental impact.
Frugalpac aims to decarbonise the global drinks industry by selling its Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines (“FBAM-1”) into local wine regions around the world.
Last year it sold its first paper bottle machine to Canada’s KinsBrae Packaging and Frugalpac have just sold another machine to California’s Monterey Wine Company.
Greenall’s Gin and When in Rome wines have won listings in Sainsbury’s and Ocado for their paper Frugal Bottles, while Welsh brand Flawless Flavoured Vodka débuted its paper bottles on Tesco shelves in April and Interpunkt wines in collaboration with South Africa’s Journey’s End are now available in all UK All Bar Ones.
Other brands using the Frugal Bottle include The English Vine’s No1 white wine, Signal 7 Wines in the US, Spain’s Planet B by Bodegas Murviedro, and Spain’s Bodegas Fernando Castro organic wines.
It’s also used by NB Distillery’s School Night and Silent Pool’s Green Man for gin and vodka, a Mexican organic tequila Buen Vato from Sweden’s Alias Smith, Half Shell Vodka by Florida’s Distillery 98, cocktails by Bottle Proof Cocktails, flavoured vodka by south Wales’ Flawless Vodkas, Wildjac rum from the UK, Wisconsin-based Demon Spirits rum, four gins by New Zealand based UK expats Mothers Ruined Gin and Italy’s Evviva and Greece’s AONES for olive oil. Imminent releases in the Frugal Bottle include wines from Spanish producer Bodegas Alodia, Australian Mother of Pearl Vodka, Silk Shot cocktail by Sweden’s Tapdance and in the UK and US, Alchemy Wines’s 100 year old Tempranillo, Twelve# Giants Merlot by Laithwaites and UK-based wine brand Savvy Pair.
Frugalpac CEO Malcolm Waugh, who was at the Franco-British trade event with the King and Queen, said: “Our mission is to decarbonise the drinks industry. 40% of a wine bottle’s carbon footprint is the glass bottle itself. That’s why we developed the Frugal Bottle. Because it’s made from 94% recycled cardboard, it uses 84% less carbon than a glass bottle.
“The King has been inspirational on encouraging sustainability and was one of the first people to set up a bottle bank in the UK, at Buckingham Palace in 1980.
“That’s why we wanted to do something special to mark the King and Queen’s state visit to France. We produced a commemorative Cardbordeaux 2023 bottle to thank him for his commitment to the environment and campaigning for sustainability for decades.
“We were particularly proud to display the French wine producers now using our paper bottle. A great example of Britian and France working together to cut carbon in the drinks industry.
“Frugalpac is going through a remarkable period of growth. As well as making bottles for over 35 drinks brands around the world we’ve also sold two Frugal Bottle Machines to the US and Canada with another 100 inquiries to buy further machines too. The paper bottle revolution is well under way.”
Gilles Raison, Group CEO of Le Petit Ballon who has been selling the first French Frugal Bottle in their stores in Paris and Lyon and online said:
“In the world of wine, glass has always been an important raw material. Unfortunately, it has a high carbon footprint.
“Faced with this challenge, we decided to use the paper bottle as a sustainable alternative as it is made of 94% recycled paperboard with a carbon footprint six times smaller than the glass bottle.
“It’s also 5 times lighter, it is also easier to transport. What doesn't change is the taste and it can even be kept for more than 12 months. The icing on the cake is that once empty, the bottle can be recycled by separating the liner from the paper shell.
“85% of the bottles sold in France are consumed in the year following their purchase, hence the consistency of using a paper bottle which is lighter and less energy-intensive in its production than a glass bottle.
“We sent it to over 5,000 of our subscribers to test the reactions, and the feedback has been excellent.”