Canned Wine Co. has acquired UK peer The Copper Crew and plans to expand through more canned-wine M&A.
Both companies produce wines solely packaged in aluminium cans, in a bid to reduce the carbon footprint from shipping heavy glass bottles.
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The deal, for an undisclosed sum, includes The Copper Crew’s IP, brand assets and stocks.
Founders – and only staff members – Oli Purnell and Theo Gough have joined Canned Wine Co. as minority shareholders and will continue to be brand ambassadors for The Copper Crew. All other business operations, sales and marketing have been brought into the Canned Wine Co. team.
The Copper Crew only produces South African wine but Canned Wine Co. intends to shift its focus away from the country to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. It said the brand will move to a “European range”. Canned Wine Co. cans all its wines at a site in Italy.
The Copper Crew is available in the UK market and is distributed predominantly into independent retail and online. Its focus will be on events trade and retail, whereas Canned Wine Co.’s products are around 95% on-premise.
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By GlobalDataCanned Wine Co. co-founder Ben Franks told Just Drinks the company’s strategy is to acquire more canned brands across different segments, which will be stamped with the slogan ‘Brought to you by Canned Wine Co.’.
It is also working on NPD within its namesake range, including its first sparkling wine.
“We are focused entirely on canned wines and being the best we can be in the market. Our M&A plans are to use the ‘Brought to you by Canned Wine Co.’ slogan on a range of canned brands as a stamp for quality and inspire trust in our wines,” Franks said. “Each brand will be built for its own market segment, which presents an exciting opportunity to specialise and introduce an exciting range of wines.”
Both brands are founding members of Wine Traders For Alt Formats, a group campaigning for alternative approaches to wine packaging. Other founding members include bag-in-box brand BIB Wine, UK importer Graft Wine Company, bag-in-box, pouch and can wine supplier More Wine and alt-format producer When in Rome Wine.
Franks added: “We have worked alongside The Copper Crew founders Oli and Theo since we launched and have gained a lot of insight into their brand and successes. When Oli and Theo decided to take on new challenges we were excited about helping them continue The Copper Crew brand under our Canned Wine Co. banner.”
Increasing the sustainability of packaging has become a focus for many wine producers.
Australia-based Fourth Wave Wines launched a labelless wine bottle last month aiming to minimise packaging materials and encourage consumers to refill. In order to apply a paper label to a bottle, a PET liner containing crude oil needs to be used. By removing the label, Fourth Wave Wines said it saves energy, waste and trees in its manufacturing.
