Kingsland Wine adds carbonation line

By Arabella Mileham

Published: 16 April, 2015

Kingsland Wine is installing a new carbonation line that will allow it to produce sparkling and infused wine drinks.

The new line, which is part of an ongoing £3.1m investment, will enable the Irlam-based bottling specialist and distributor to offer a wider range of products, as well as boost its overall capacity by around 25%. The new line, which replaces an existing older line, will be able to fill between 12,600 and 15,000 bottles per hour and boost overall production to 120mL.

The plant currently operates at around 75% of its 90mL capacity but manufacturing director Mark Dixon said this is set to rise to around 81% by the end of the year to retain headroom for growth.

"This will give us the headroom to cater for peaks and for seasonality," he said.

Dixon told Harpers the new line, which is expected to be operational in October, would be capable of filling a variety of different bottles and closures, but the company would initially focus on 50cl and 75cl bottle formats. However there is also scope for incorporating other sizes, including 1L bottles, in due course, as well as screw-cap, crown, mushroom and cage enclosure.

The move will allow the company to tap into the booming growth of sparkling wines, as well as develop new products, it said.

"It is the area of greatest demand and part of a growing category, which our customers are asking us to do all the time," Dixon told Harpers. "There are other carbonation lines in the UK, but we believe we are the first to invest in this capability for wine products as well as low-alcohol, spirits-based, fusion and blended drinks."

According to Dix, the blended and infused drink would use a base wine with adding ingredients such as fruit and other flavours to enhance the flavours of the wine.

Fruit-fusion wines have proved very popular in Europe and a number of key UK players have rolled out versions in the UK market in the last 18 months including Accolade, with its Echo Falls Fruit Fusion range, and Stellenbosch Vineyard's Arniston Bay Infusions, which is distributed by Enotria.

Last month the company rolled out WinePRO, a new insight tool that it said would not only help customers segment the category better, but would also inform the company's npd pipeline.