News

The holiday season, when we all rack up the carbon miles by jetting off to far-flung places, might not seem the best time to be extolling the environmental benefits of importing wine in bulk for bottling in the UK.

However, a report by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap), due to be published as Packaging News went to press, is promoting it as a way to help drinks manufacturers reduce their carbon footprint (See below, page 41). Of the £7.6bn worth of wine brought into the UK each year, only 20% is imported in bulk, with the rest being bottled at source, in most cases in 75cl green glass bottles that weigh, on average, 500g.

While lightweighting has become a buzzword in packaging design in recent times – although it is arguably something that the industry has been doing throughout its history – the growth of bottling imported wine seems to have passed unnoticed. “Ten years ago, some 10% of wine was imported in bulk, and it was actually decreasing,” says Wrap glass technology manager Andy Dawe. “It’s now double that, which must mean that it is accepted by the public and, increasingly, by the trade.”

Sign of the times
The fact that Quinn Glass has installed a bottling facility at its plant in Cheshire (Packaging News, March 2007) might indicate that the container glass sector now regards bottling as a viable business. However, other manufacturers seem reluctant to follow Quinn’s lead. Given the huge capital investment required, they are perhaps holding back until the success of the venture is known.

Although bottling plants are not a completely new idea for glass makers, Quinn has been the first to put it into practice on any scale – the plant has five lines capable of bottling a total of 400 bottles of wine, or 1,000 bottles of beer, per minute.

In some respects there is a convincing business argument; having manufacturing and bottling on the same site can reduce costs and keep prices competitive. “It’s an attractive proposition for many brands,” says Andrew Wilson, technical manager at Krones UK, which installed Quinn’s bottling plant.

However, the large drinks companies are likely to have their own bottling facilities. Julian Mears, communications manager for media at Britvic Europe, feels that it makes sense for the company to keep its bottling operation. “That way we can run a variety of products down our lines,” he says.

By offering bottling services, there is the potential for glass makers to win more business as an overflow plant in times of high demand, and it is as a contract packing operation that the greatest benefits from bottling lines are likely to be had. “Using a facility such as Quinn’s, drinks makers have breathing space when it comes to considering their own expansion plans,” says Wilson.

Bottling is, however, unlikely to provide a one-size-fits-all blueprint for the future of the container glass industry in the UK and there are a number of other plausible scenarios. In recent years, the sector has been faced with the challenge of dealing with rising energy costs and strict legislation compounded with overcapacity in the sector, but it is a challenge that manufacturers have ultimately risen to.

Despite narrower margins and several furnace closures, glass production has increased steadily and the marketplace has gradually consolidated itself, most recently through Ardagh’s acquisition of Rexam’s glass operations. Furthermore, British Glass director general David Workman suggests that Saint Gobain’s decision to sell off its container glass division might point to further consolidation in the sector. “In the medium term, we are likely to get to the stage of having a small number of major volume suppliers and some smaller specialist manufacturers,” he says. “But, at this stage, it is difficult to speculate.”

Firms have also been consistently pushing back the boundaries of what is achievable with glass, and setting new ‘best in class’ standards such as Ardagh’s spirits bottle for the Co-op and O-I’s bottle for Adnams beer, which the company says has “opened new doors to other areas”. “Developing this is certainly something that’s on the cards for us,” says O-I spokesman Philip Tutt. “Sustainability is now so dominant in the whole packaging supply chain.”

Weight loss
Lightweighting is an integral part of the GlassRite intiative, and the working relationship that has developed between Wrap and the container glass industry has borne some very tangible fruits in this area. It is perhaps because of that success that focus is now turning to bottling with some confidence. “There has always been some wine bottle manufacturing in the UK,” says Wrap’s Dawe. “But not much when compared to more established countries like France. We’re trying to tackle that.”

One of the major benefits of bottling wine in the UK is, that by increasing the number of wine bottles produced here, it creates a market for recycled green glass cullet. This would help reverse the current imbalance created by importing large quantities of wine in green bottles, while exporting spirits in flint.

Any success in persuading overseas vintners to use flint bottles would also be beneficial, and foreign acceptance will be crucial to the success of bulk importing and bottling in the UK. The mood is positive; there seems to be “very little resistance” to the idea, according to Dawe, unless there are other vested interests in the exporting country that override the economic benefits.

But however much bottling facilities contribute to reducing carbon footprints or otherwise help the environment, any decision to include them is likely to be based on financial gain, and on that, for the moment, the jury is still out. But it is clearly something that does have potential. “I don’t know if bulk importing and bottling will set a trend,” says British Glass’s Workman. “But it’s got to be good news, because it would mean more glass production staying in the UK.

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ALTERNATIVE MATERIALS
Alcoholic drinks and glass; it is hard to think of a stronger pairing in the packaging world, which presents a major barrier to entry for contenders.

Although a plastic pouch might not seem the most obvious container for wine, research carried out by Pira International discovered that it had a lower environmental impact than bottles of wine, even if 100% of the glass is recycled (Packaging News, June 2007). The pouches also take up a third less space when transported, and weigh 20 times less than glass.

Pira’s head of sustainability Gary Parker admits that this is unlikely to threaten the dominance of glass, but does enable the wine industry to offer different formats. “The wine industry’s not growing and its consumers are ageing,” he says. “This is an opportunity to look at new markets.”

Plastic bottles, too, could be an alternative for beer, if trends in Eastern Europe are adopted in the UK.
In Western Europe, 2% of beer is bought in PET bottles, compared to 14% in Eastern Europe and 17% in Russia, according to research company Euromonitor. It attributes the phenomenon to the convenience of this type of packaging, and the availability of large sizes, which are popular with people “looking to spend time away in the countryside at the weekend”.

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BULK IMPORTS
A report by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) underlines the environmental benefits of bulk importing wine for bottling in the UK, which is the world’s largest wine importer.

Looking at the carbon footprint of wine imported from France and Australia, the study compares four areas that affect overall carbon emissions: use of bulk containers, bottle weights, distance travelled and method of transport. It found that bulk importing could reduce carbon emissions by 30%-40%, and a 20% reduction in the weight of a 75cl bottle could save up to 13% in carbon.

The report also found that moving to shipping wine by rail in Europe, rather than by road as is traditional, would reduce overall CO2 emissions by a quarter.

Wrap glass technology manager Andy Dawe says: “Ideally we’d like to combine lightweighting and bulk importing to achieve the best results.” The carbon footprint of alcohol consumed in the UK is 1.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions, and a quarter of that 1.5% is attributable to wine.

For more information, see www.wrap.org.uk/retail