Two UK bulk wine bottling companies are installing facilities that allow brands to seal their products with corks along with screw caps – a result, the DB was told last week, of the growing desire for cork.
During a meeting with UK-based wine consultant Clem Yates MW and Amorim Marketing Director Carlos De Jesus at Wine Paris on Tuesday 13 February, it became clear that there is a growing demand for cork among wine brands, which they said is being fueled by credentials. Strong sustainability of the product.
Evidence of this development can be seen in the decision by two UK wholesale wine bottling companies to install bottling lines that can seal products with corks, in addition to existing lines to seal bottles with screw caps, they said.
Yates recorded that Encirc Beverages was putting together a cork line that db was assured would be ready for use in the next couple of months, following a request from a “top 20” wine brand that is transitioning from screw cap to cork for its production. Wine shipped wholesale to the UK market.
Meanwhile, Broadland Drinks is installing a new closing machine at its Norfolk wine bottling facility “as part of its mission to help retailers and brand owners reduce their carbon footprints”.
Speaking to db about the move by Encirc and Broadland to provide the ability to cork bulk-packed wine when bottled in the UK, Yates said that the carbon-negative nature of cork* was becoming an increasing attraction for wine brands, while commenting that while While the UK trade had been “rejecting the use of cork due to the risk of TCA contamination, the technology now exists to eliminate this problem.”
Commenting on overall market trends, De Jesus told DB that global sales of cork stoppers are “growing,” noting that the total cork market today reached 13.2 billion units, with screw caps sold just under 6 billion annually.
While the overall wine market is not growing, sales of corks — and screw caps — have been increasing at the expense of plastic stoppers, which are declining, according to De Jesus.
Looking at recent history, De Jesus said: “Amorim was producing about $2.5 billion when screw caps and plastic came out, but now we produce 6 billion corks every year – and plastics and screw caps were good for us; we needed that kick in the pants.” .
* A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, commissioned by Amorim, indicates that a single natural cork can capture up to 392 grams of carbon dioxide.
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