Garçon Wines achieves the “impossible” with postable PET bottles

02 May 2018 --- In collaboration with M&H Plastics UK, Garçon Wines has reimagined wine retailing, logistics and delivery with the invention of a full-sized, letterbox-friendly 750ml wine bottle made from 100 percent recyclable PET. As the granted IP holder of the invention, Garçon Wines commercializes these unique, slimline and lightweight wine bottles, operating as both a drinks packaging provider and wine wholesale supplier.

“The founders, myself and Joe Revell, were looking to find a way to have wine delivered seamlessly into the home via the letterbox; we were trying to create the equivalent of Graze snacks but for wine,” Santiago Navarro tells FoodIngredientsFirst. “However, in addition to the functional benefit of seamless delivery, we also wanted the wine to be presented in a vessel that looked beautiful on a dining table and that respected the traditions of wine. It was after much brainstorming and blue-sky thinking that I came up with the idea of 'trimming' two of the sides off a round wine bottle, taking a cross-section and therefore making it thin enough to go through a letterbox.”

The new bottle was developed over a large part of 2017 and presented to the first business customers from February 2018, ultimately launching on the UK market at the end of April 2018. Garçon Wines worked with RPC M&H Plastics to develop bottles made from 100 percent recycled PET that are fully recyclable, meaning that no new virgin plastic is created while conforming to the traditional Bordeaux wine bottle shape.

“We chose RPC M&H Plastics after an extensive search to see which bottle manufacturers had firstly, the foresight to work with an innovative start-up from the early-stages, secondly, the technical ability to create a challenging shaped bottle which many said was impossible to make, thirdly, the size and scale to be able to offer growth to large volumes and internationally and finally, the ability to produce a bottle in 100 percent recycled PET,” adds Navarro. “M&H ticked all the boxes and proved to have all the expertise while being a pleasure to work with.”

The recycled PET used for the bottle is significantly lighter than glass and tough enough to withstand the postal system. The unique design means the packaging can fit securely and conveniently through a standard sized letterbox, ensuring no missed deliveries and ultimately leading to further reductions in CO2 emissions.

“It's Garçon Wines' view that a solution to the problem of pollution from plastic waste is to create a value for used plastic by using it for new products. Our bottle is 87 percent lighter and 40 percent spatially smaller than a standard round glass wine bottle, significantly reducing the carbon emissions throughout the supply chain,” says Navarro.

Howard Frost, Marketing Manager at M&H Plastics explains to FoodIngredientsFirst that, “The bottle is produced in recycled PET using the injection stretch blow molding process.”

“We used recycled PET, with its glass-like clarity and enhanced protective, weight and space-saving qualities, adopting the familiar styling of the Claret bottle which has been registered for Intellectual Property in 35 countries,” adds Frost. “Garçon Wines has registered the design of this bottle and also for the flat version of the Burgundy shape bottle. M&H Plastics has over 5,000 standards in bottles, jars, tubes and closures, but this bottle is a custom design, owned by Garçon Wines.”

The innovative bottle was designed with the growing trend of online consumerism in mind. “Our bottle is ideal for online ordering and delivery to the consumer, whether at home or elsewhere. We offer a bottle which enables wine for the Amazon generation”, says Navarro. Garçon Wines recently launched a partnership with the UK’s fastest growing online florist, Bloom & Wild, the start-up which has revolutionized letterbox flower deliveries.

The bottles are currently featured in the Museum of Design in Plastics and were recognized at the prestigious World Beverage Innovation Awards where the company won the award for Best New Beverage Concept. Garçon Wines’ extensive IP portfolio for their range of slimline wine bottle designs was granted in the UK in November 2016. In May 2017, the IP was extended to cover 35 countries internationally.

Garçon Wines launched after winning CNBC TV series Pop Up Start Up and being awarded a £20,000 cash prize. The company retained the services of a Master of Wine – the most prestigious title in the world of wine – and the leading qualification in wine expertise who oversees wine-related matters. Moreover, they believe that their slimline bottle design is revolutionizing wine retailing, logistics and delivery, in the UK and internationally.

“The bottles are award-winning and have received universal praise from the world's media, showing that our invention is more than a novelty product,” says Navarro. “It's got the potential to be as game-changing in wine packaging as the screw cap was for wine closures.”

By Joshua Poole