Frugalpac CEO Malcolm Waugh, right, with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer MP and the Frugal Bottle
British sustainable packaging company Frugalpac, producers of the Frugal Bottle - the world’s first and only commercially available paper bottle for wines and spirits - has called on the Government to help “ship paper bottle machines around the world, not empty wooden bottles full of air.”
It comes after today’s announcement that the Government’s National Wealth Fund Bank is investing £43.5m in sustainable packaging firm Pulpex to build a wooden bottle production plant in Glasgow which will create 35 jobs. This will be topped up by a further £10 million from the state-owned Scottish National Investment Bank.
Frugalpac produces the Frugal Bottle, made from 94% recycled paperboard with a food grade pouch to hold the liquid. It’s five times lighter than a glass bottle and crucially uses six times less carbon and energy to produce and dispose.
Frugalpac already has a privately funded paper bottle factory in Ipswich to promote the Frugal Bottle that employs 28 people and will require more talented people as it grows. It also designs the Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines to sell to customers to allow the paper bottles to be made closer to where they are filled with wines and spirits and so reduce carbon further by not shipping empty bottles full of air.
This business model allows Great British Engineering to be exported around the world.
Each Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine can produce 2.5 million paper bottles a year and Frugalpac, which was recently awarded The King’s Award for Innovation, has already sold three for export to the US, Canada and Australia.
KinsBrae Packaging in Canada bought the first machine to serve the Canadian and North American drinks markets and it became operational in January 2024.
And in the USA a second Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine is starting to produce paper bottles in California’s Monterey Wine Company this month and Frugalpac has signed a contract to sell a machine to Australia for Mother of Pearl Vodka.
Frugalpac also has signed a letter of intent with one of the largest value-added converters of packaging in South Asia, ITC Limited’s Packaging and Printing Business, to bring paper Frugal Bottles to India in a ground-breaking collaboration to decarbonise the drinks industry.
Launched in 2020, the Frugal Bottle is now used by 51 producers from around the world using it in 63 brands in 127 different SKUs of wines and spirits and they’re available in 25 countries including Australia, Japan, North America, Canada, the UK, across Europe, Scandinavia, and South Africa.
They have been on sale in retailers including Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons as well as Whole Foods Market in the USA and soon to be launched in Target supermarkets and 7-Eleven convenience stores across the USA.
Last month at the House of Commons Frugalpac launched its Paper Bottle Green Growth Manifesto - a call to action printed directly on its bottles - as part of its mission to accelerate the transition to a net-zero economy.
The four key policy proposals are:
- Establish a UK-Based Recycled Content Industry
- Introduce Standardised Carbon Labelling
- Deliver Nationwide Recycling Standardisation
- Reform R&D Tax Credits
Frugalpac CEO Malcolm Waugh said: “Whilst we welcome any investment in low carbon sustainable packaging, it is important to remember that it is more sustainable to ship these carbon-cutting machines abroad and not just empty bottles full of air around the world.
“Without any public investment, we built our first Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine in Ipswich six years ago and have now sold another three machines for export to the USA, Canada and Australia. If we want to cut the carbon footprint of the drinks industry, we need to site these machines locally so that paper bottles can be produced as close to the filling lines as possible.
“The Government has been supportive of our mission, including the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, and promoted us at trade exhibitions.
“But what would really help green smaller businesses like ours is the reform of Research and Development Tax Credits and easier access to innovation grants so we can develop and scale the next-generation of sustainable packaging products, as well as contributing to UK employment and driving exports of Great British Engineering around the world.”
Frugalpac has also set up the ‘Frugal Bottle Fill Good Collective’ of fillers and co-packers to allow drinks brands around the world find their nearest filler to either do a limited trial to test the market or place large orders.
The full collective of Frugal Bottle fillers so far is:
- Cantina Goccia, Italy
- Skanvin, Denmark
- Bodegas Fernando Castro, Spain
- La Bouteille Qui Cartonne, France
- Broadland Drinks, Norfolk, England
- Young Spirits, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Monterey Wine Company, California, USA
- Encore Beverages, Australia
- Mother of Pearl Vodka, Australia
- ODB beverages, the Netherlands
- The Stillery, the Netherlands
- Hensol Castle Distillery, Wales
- Brand Tap, Worcestershire, England
- KinsBrae Group, Ontario, Canada
- Distillery 98, Florida, USA
- Kueppersbusch Velbert, Germany