Bottle Green’s future is good to go

Bottle Green Drinks Company, best known for its elderflower cordials, grew sales by 10% in 2007, despite the disappointing summer and a change of ownership.

The Cotswolds-based firm, which sources water from its own spring to make a range of beverages, sorbets and ices, said it was looking to build on this year’s sales performance with the introduction of new products in 2008 and exploit growth potential in cafés, hotels and bars.

Marketing director Andrew Mallinson said this year’s sales performance indicates an increasing consumer demand towards healthy, natural drinks and away from those using added sugar and additives.

In the last two years, the company has invested £1.5M on equipment to improve automated processes. A palletiser, de-palletiser and a pasteuriser - used for non-Bottle Green products - have been installed, while blending is still performed by hand. Further investment has seen improvements to on-site new product development facilities, which now have two dedicated staff.

The 15-strong processing team continues to cold filter cordials using microfilters, which Bottle Green claims retain a more traditional method of production and taste that customers want.

“The company was founded using green bottles and we aim to use recycled glass as much as possible - they do not require over-carbonating as with plastic containers and do not leach,” said Mallinson.

The business, which was sold by its founders to the management team earlier this year, said it was aiming to continue the ethical ethos of the company by being as carbon neutral as possible.