British sustainable packaging company Frugalpac has beaten off competition from Coca-Cola, Corona Beer, and Stella Artois to win global packaging innovation awards for its paper Frugal Bottle.
The Frugal Bottle and US wine brand Signal 7 Wines won the Best in Class for Technical Design in Packaging Innovation at PAC Global’s Packaging Awards at the Futures Edge Summit in New York City. They also received an Award of Distinction in the Sustainable Design category.
The Frugal Bottle is the world’s first and only commercially available wine, spirits, and olive oil bottle from recycled paper.
It’s made from 94% recycled paperboard, has a carbon footprint up to six times lower (84%) than a glass bottle, and is five times lighter. They launched in July 2020 with the award-winning Italian winery Cantina Goccia.
Now over 30 drinks brands, including Signal 7 Wines, are using the bottle around the world for wines, gins, vodkas, tequila, calvados, cocktails, and olive oil. The paper bottles are on sale in 20 countries including Japan, North America, the UK, across Europe, Scandinavia, and Australia, and soon will be available in South Africa and New Zealand.
The Frugal Bottle is developing a growing following in the North American market. Recent research by Lux Research found more than 35 million Americans are interested in seeing more sustainable wine packaging.
As well as Signal 7 Wines, two other US drinks producers are launching spirits in the Frugal Bottle in the next two months – Distillery 98’s Half Shell Vodka and Demon Spirits’ Demon Spiced Rum and Trop Coco Rum.
This follows from the sale of the first Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine to North America to Canada’s KinsBrae Packaging. The machine, which will be based in Ontario, will help to meet the growing demand for North American brands wanting to move to the more sustainable packaging of Frugal Bottles.
As well as inquiries to make 120m Frugal Bottles, Frugalpac also has strong inquiries from more than 100 other international brands, contract packing, and packaging companies to buy Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines. Each machine will be able to produce 2.5 million Frugal Bottles a year.
The company’s vision is to place bottling machines in the heart of bottling plants, co-packers, or packaging companies worldwide to reduce the carbon footprint of its sustainable packaging even further – creating eco-friendly Frugal Bottle hubs around the world.
