Westons

CIDER: STOWFORD CANNING LINE

Westons backs growth plans with £3m canning line

WESTONS CIDER HAS STEPPED UP ITS AMBITIOUS GROWTH PLANS BY BRINGING ALL PACKAGING IN-HOUSE WITH A NEW £3M CANNING LINE

Having set out the latest steps in its efforts to make Tesco stores “the easiest place for customers to shop for affordable, healthy, sustainable food”, Tesco has today announced that these commitments are now being extended to Booker “to further improve access to healthy alternatives for Booker’s business customers.” Westons Cider, the UK’s leading authentic cider maker, has unveiled a brand-new canning line at its Herefordshire mill. The £3 million production line, which began packaging 440ml cans of Westons’ bestselling Stowford Press earlier this month, produces 12,500 cans per hour and reflects the increasing dominance of canned products within the cider category and beyond.

The latest investment in the business also represents a significant step forward, as Westons Cider continues to target ambitious growth plans amid a challenging year for cider in the on-trade and a bumper one in the off-trade.

“Over the past year it’s become clear just how important it is for us to control our own destiny, particularly when it comes to getting our world-renowned ciders from our mill into people’s hands,” explains Helen Thomas, MD at Westons Cider.

“Bringing all of our canning requirements in house means we’ll control our supply chain end to end and will no longer be reliant on third parties. This will mean we can provide a better service to our customers by responding even more quickly to future upticks in shopper demand. We see this as a great opportunity to future-proof the Westons Cider business by removing some of our external costs – plus the price fluctuations that often come with these – and exploring packaging alliances with some of our key partners.”

Cans have become a vital format for the cider category in recent years, as shoppers move away from value amber and white ciders, often packaged in plastic bottles, towards more premium options. Cans now make up more than half (59%) of all off-trade cider sales [IRI, Jan 2021]. “Shoppers love cans because they’re easy to chill, recyclable and lightweight,” adds Thomas.

She continues: “Last year, as shoppers’ habits changed due to the impact of Covid-19, many of us switched to less frequent, higher spend shopping trips. This means multipacks, particularly those in canned formats, now command even more attention in-store. In fact, our Stowford Press 10-pack is up 540% year-on-year [IRI, Mar 2021], demonstrating just how popular larger pack formats are becoming.”

Westons Cider currently operates comprehensive on-site packaging facilities for all its bottled, bag-in-box and draught ciders lines. This latest investment will mean all cider cans produced will now be packaged at its site in Herefordshire.

The news coincides with an update to Westons Cider’s Stowford Press four-pack, which has undergone a packaging refresh. The updated multipack incorporates a lighter cardboard structure, meaning 29 tonnes of cardboard is removed from across the brand every year. It will appear on shop shelves from June.