Leading sustainable drinks producer and co-packer Broadland Drinks is to become the UK’s largest filler of Frugal Bottles - the low carbon paper wine and spirits bottle - in a milestone partnership with Journey’s End and British sustainable packaging company Frugalpac.
It will mean mass volume Frugal Bottle filling to allow UK retailers and on-trade to stock even more paper bottles to help decarbonise the drinks industry supply chain.
Interpunkt wines in collaboration with Journey’s End Vineyards have already won listings at All Bar One and Stonegate and Castle pubs. This move will enable Journey’s End to expand Interpunkt wines in Frugal Bottles further into the UK market and beyond.
Drinks experts predict a rising demand for more sustainable packaging with a recent poll of nearly 2,500 wine merchants and producers by ProWein finding 29% of UK traders plan to list paper wine bottles in their stores in the next two years.
Award-winning Frugal Bottles are currently produced by Frugalpac in Ipswich and are made from 94% recycled paperboard. Weighing just 83g and with a food grade liner, they are five times lighter than a glass bottle and have a carbon footprint 84% lower than glass. They also offer 360° branding for exceptional, impactful shelf presence.
More than 35 different drinks producers from around the world have launched 128 different SKUs of wines, spirits and olive oils in the Frugal Bottle since 2020.
At the forefront of cutting-edge sustainable drinks production and packaging filling, Norfolk-based Broadland Drinks installed one of the UK’s first bag-in-box lines 40 years ago. The company now has a filling capacity of 50m litres a year of wine and drinks into formats including low carbon bag-in-box, pouches, bottles and cans at its innovative production hub in Cawston.
The progressive BRC Grade AA+ company is eliminating fossil fuel usage from its operations by 2025. To help to reach its target, Broadland deploys a range of measures including using 100% renewable electricity - generating a third of its own electricity from 1,000 solar PV roof panels; it sends zero waste to landfill and cleans its own waste water – helping to save tonnes of carbon emissions.
The partnership comes only weeks after Frugalpac confirmed the second sale of their Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine to North America, with California’s Monterey Wine Company.
Broadland Drinks CEO Mark Lansley said:
“Partnering with Journey’s End and Frugalpac aligns perfectly with our commitment to sustainability and innovation. We are very impressed with the Frugal Bottle’s eco credentials and its rapid adoption by the trade and consumers.
“For over 50 years we have championed environmental sustainability and we are dedicated to providing cutting-edge low carbon solutions to meet the evolving needs of our customers.
“Integrating Interpunkt’s Frugal Bottles into our portfolio is a proactive step towards reducing the environmental impact of packaging materials. We are excited about the potential of this partnership to drive positive change across the entire supply chain."
Interpunkt Founder Andrew Ingham added:
“Interpunkt’s mission is to make sustainable climate-conscious wine as accessible as possible.
“Our paper bottles emit six times less carbon than glass wine bottles. Packing our wines in the UK is the next step in the journey to decarbonise the wine category.
“We want people to have the option of enjoying a delicious glass of wine without adding unnecessary levels of carbon into our planet’s atmosphere that the wine industry produces.
“This is a great step towards achieving our vision and crucially, helping to reduce our impact one paper bottle at a time.”
Frugalpac Chief Executive Malcolm Waugh said:
“Broadland Drinks has a long and proven track record of providing innovative low carbon packaging solutions.
“We’re really pleased that this new partnership will bring mass volume Frugal Bottle filling to the UK for Journey’s End and Interpunkt which will reduce the carbon footprint of our bottles even further.
“Our aim is to place Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines at the heart of a bottling plant, co-packers or local packaging companies to reduce the carbon footprint of our sustainable packaging even further and have Frugal Bottle hubs around the world.
“We have recently sold our first two Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines to Canada and the US and by Spring 2024 Frugal Bottle production will rise to 7.5m. The Frugal Bottle revolution is in full swing, it’s here to stay and for the sake of our planet it’s time to get on board.”
Frugalpac’s range of paper wine bottles were even recently seen by the Queen in Bordeaux at a Franco-British trade event to celebrate the King and Queen’s visit to France.
A recent poll of nearly 2,500 wine merchants and producers by ProWein found 11% of traders around the world plan to list paper wine bottles in their stores in the next two years. This figure rose to 14% in the US, 29% of traders in the UK and a third (33%) in Norway.
This year the Frugalpac was named SME of the Year in the UK Green Business Awards and the Innovation of the Year award winner at the East Anglian Daily Times Business Awards 2023.
Frugalpac calls on all wineries, distillers, contract fillers and packaging businesses to invest in the Frugal Bottle Bottle Assembly Machines to meet the high demands for the Frugal Bottles around the world to reduce carbon and increase their sales of the wines, spirits and packaging.