Spirit of success: Garçon Wines secures investment for cleantech packaging business launch

03 May 2021 --- Garçon Wines has secured investments of £670,000 (US$929,000) to fund its launch of a multinational cleantech packaging business arm for wine, spirits and other beverages, operating alongside its wine wholesale business. 

The investment was made in parent company Delivering Happiness and will also help fund Garçon Wines’ production expansions and staffed offices in Australia and the US.

The London-headquartered start-up is famed for its carbon-cutting, 100 percent recyclable and recycled PET (rPET) flat wine bottles, designed for e-commerce but equally appealing for traditional retail.

“The cleantech packaging arm division will focus on the packaging side of things. Concurrently, Garçon Wines will now solely focus on sustainable wine brand creation and wholesaling,” Santiago Navarro, Garçon Wines CEO, tells PackagingInsights.

“The [packaging business] primary model will be to establish multiple international locations where we produce a growing range of bottles and also offer bottling facilities.”

“The cleantech packaging business will have its own brand name, and we are proud to have chosen a brand name which clearly communicates ‘packaging protecting Mother Earth.’”

Building back better
Garçon Wines has decided to accelerate its international growth during the COVID-19 “build back better” movement. 

Garçon Wines saw flat bottle volumes grow more than 20 times in 2020 compared to 2019.The start-up’s multi-award-winning flat bottle has demonstrated huge potential in slashing supply chain inefficiencies and carbon emissions.

For example, Banrock Station’s version of the flat wine bottle weighs just 63 g when empty and is 87 percent lighter than the average UK glass wine bottle.

“COVID-19 has been both good and bad for business,” Navarro says. “Demand has been strong in 2020, and we saw flat bottle volumes grow more than 20 times in 2020 compared to 2019.”

“In addition to overall volumes now distributed across seven countries – the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and South Africa – we also experienced unprecedented demand for Letterbox Wine, as contactless delivery fitted so well with social distancing measures.”

Garçon Wines enjoyed a 600 percent demand rise for these special deliveries. Innova Market Insights identified “Home Delivery Haven” as its leading trend for 2021, with grocery and premium F&B home delivery skyrocketing amid COVID-19 restrictions. 

“COVID-19 was a black swan event of monumental scale and size,” continues Navarro. “As a result, innovation projects and NPD have not been a top priority for many companies who were purely trying to get through, or survive, the pandemic.”

“The largest negative impact for us has been the delay in getting to launch our US activities. The demanding presidential elections, in addition to the pandemic, made it an even more challenging year for the US.”

“However, we are now focused on making up for lost time in the US, and we will shortly activate a local market development advisory team who will help us with this.”

Bottle production and bottling facilities
Garçon Wines believes the positive butterfly effect from its flat bottle innovation will create an opportunity for the soon-to-launch cleantech packaging arm to scale through collaborations with leading drinks companies, continuing with wine but expanding into new categories.

The cleantech packaging business aims to establish multiple international locations to produce flat bottles and offer bottling facilities.Garçon Wines’ new packaging business is likely to offer different models for local bottle production and filling.

The start-up enjoys a fully operational production partnership with Berry M&H and The Park for bottle filling in the UK. It will be offering a similar arrangement in Australia and the US and is exploring bottling in France and bottle production and bottling in South Africa.

“Quality is of paramount importance at this early stage of business, and so the more we can pass production through an established network which we fully understand, the more likely we are to be able to control the high quality of output we require,” explains Navarro.

“We take our commitments to our existing customers very seriously. With a global giant and wine leader like Accolade Wines using our sustainable bottles, we will not take any risk that a new project could negatively impact their work or their brands.”

“Therefore, we seek to have a greater control over quality by also having a greater level of control over production.”

Over time, the packaging business is likely to offer different models for local bottle production and filling, foreseeing some customers bringing production in-house to their winery or distillery as they scaled.

“We would be more than happy to consider and work to this sort of arrangement. Something similar will likely apply for new markets we seek to launch via a representation model where we will franchise and/or license to a local company that better understands their home market with local intricacies, which makes it much easier for a local operator to run this business,” he adds.

Sights set on spirits
The cleantech packaging division will continue to operate in wine but expand into spirits and other drinks, recognizing the commercial and environmental benefits of its wine industry offering are transferable.

The cleantech packaging division will continue to operate in wine but expand into spirits and other beverages.For example, in countries where wine is not the most convivial alcoholic drink, there could be a local spirit equally suited to the rPET bottle.

“There are high volume spirits products which are moved through complex supply chains. These spirits brands could readily benefit from our cleantech packaging,” notes Navarro.

“Beyond this, there are also many other drinks which would be more sustainable by using our cleantech packaging.”

Garçon Wines’ shape innovation is one of its bottle’s three core features alongside best-in-class material and recyclability by design.

The start-up plans to extend its bottle portfolio into new shapes, materials and closures while studying reusable packaging and business models, allowing it to intercept its packaging for closed-loop recycling.”

Winning with wine
Navarro indicates his company might also revisit some of its original plans to sell direct-to-consumer. However, it will not stop wine wholesaling as there are many businesses already relying on its supply.

Garçon Wines will also start launching and building brands. Its first multinational brand in flat wine bottles will be focused on boating, beaches, and the outdoors.

“We have seen in the Nordics that our sustainable bottles have been very popular for boating and other outdoor activities,” explains Navarro.

“This is an application where not only the eco-friendly aspect of our bottles is attractive but also the highly convenient shape, lightweight, and shatter resistance.”

“We will look to create many other brands, which will either be country or channel-specific.”

By Joshua Poole

The full-time Garcon Wines team at London HQ.