Bottle Green

Source: Exec Digital UK

Date :18/02/2008 17:10:39

MD of Bottle Green Simon Speers tells Exec about 2007’s buyout scheme, its product portfolio, developing the brand image and how the soft drink manufacturer intends to grow its turnover.

Written by Lucy Mowatt and produced by Hannah Edwards

Having been hired by Bottle Green in 2002 with “the remit to drive growth”, Simon Speers became so enamoured with the company that he decided - with other members of the management team- to buy out its founders. Since then, the company has maintained its focus on developing the Bottle Green brand. “It is a great little company with terrific growth potential; we’re considered to be innovators in the premium adult cordial market and place huge emphasis on producing great tasting cordials and lightly sparkling presses that appeal to the discerning adult consumer.”

The aim six years ago, to grow a £5 million turnover to £10 million, will be fulfilled in 2008. Bottle Green is developing a plan to reach the £20 million mark.

Simon puts this growth down to setting achievable goals along with a suitable strategy for hitting them.

However, he maintains that growth can also be attributed to the quality product range that Bottle Green manufactures. “Consumers want natural, healthy, great-tasting products which are exactly what we’ve been producing here at Bottle Green since the day Kit and Shireen Morris started the company in 1989.” Indeed, this commitment to clean-tasting, natural products is integral to the company’s strategy as it seeks to double in size. Says Simon Speers: “We’ve established a very loyal base of consumers that appreciate our commitment to quality, natural products. We will never detract from this commitment – it’s the principal reason the brand has grown to its current level.”

Natural and additive free

Bottle Green’s presses, which come in six flavours, including Elderflower, are completely additive free. Indeed, the only chemical added to the cordials is sulphur dioxide, also to be found in wine, but at a level ten times higher than that found in cordials. Bottle Green is aiming to reduce this content even further, but has to ensure that the product is safe once in consumer store cupboards.

“A couple of years ago, there was a sodium benzoate scare across the soft drinks industry, but we’d already taken that out of our presses two or three years before because we’re continually striving to give the cleanest and best tasting product we can,” the MD says. This is being applied to a new range of Bottle Green drinks, “Bottle Green Junior”, aimed at children, which will be launched in April 2008 in specially created flavours.

“We’re not one of those companies that refuses to say ‘not from concentrate’,” Mr Speers continues. As a company that is equally concerned about the taste of its products and its environmental impact, Bottle Green is not against using concentrated fruit juice. It doesn’t reduce the nutritional value of juice, but does cut down on the impact of transportation because the juice is sourced from wherever the fruit tastes best. Sourcing fruit is a balance between taste and the environment.

As affirmation of the company’s commitment to taste and quality, Bottle Green also won the Good Housekeeping Award for the Best Soft Drink of 2007. Simon describes the recognition as “fantastic”, saying that the readers of Good Housekeeping have similar values to Bottle Green, recognising good quality and home values, and as such, the accolade means a great deal.

Investing in quality

With growing popularity, Bottle Green has been able to make investments in new technology and equipment. “Both the previous owners and the new management team have continually invested in the site and bought it up to spec, but we were getting close to capacity,” Simon says. As such, the company has invested in extending the fabric of its facility in Woodchester, Gloucestershire, and the production line. In total, approximately £1.5 million has been spent over 24 months in order to increase efficiency and line performance.

A new pasteuriser has also been installed at the site, which is used in areas where cold filtering processes are inappropriate. “For example, our cold filtering could not do cloudy lemonade because it wouldn’t be cloudy – we would clean it out basically,” he says. This process machinery is also used for a number of lines produced on behalf of Duchy Originals and has enabled the company to extend its product range.

The MD proudly explains that in spite of the removal of “hand-to-hand” processes, the company has maintained its head count. “[We] put them through training and development so they are at a higher skill level on the production line, looking after the machinery, making sure it’s all working properly rather than handling products on the line. We invested in the people rather than making them redundant.”

Indeed, Bottle Green carries out annual reviews of its staff to identify any training requirements and to find out what will be beneficial to both employees and the company.

Bottle Green is encouraging links between local schools, colleges and businesses in the area too. Speers is in fact the Chairman of Cirencester College’s Science Academy, which is looking to forge these links and encourage students to work for local businesses. The company also runs an annual competition with a local school for children to design a new drink, which is then manufactured for the children. Mr Speers explains that this is now part of their curriculum and encourages children to learn about industry and “brings factories to life”.

Building the brand

Alongside its success in the UK, Bottle Green also markets its products abroad, with successful relationships in Australia and Japan. “We have a sister company called Bottle Green Canada and they do pretty well,” Simon Speers continues. This is the company’s biggest export market, but the sister company also trades in the US, an area in which Bottle Green intends to focus its efforts over the next three years. “It’s work in progress and in two years time we’ll be looking back thinking ‘we could have done this better, but we’ve made substantial gains.’”

As well as developing new products, Bottle Green has invested heavily in rebranding its cordial and presse ranges, which will result in new “company livery”: “From April onwards our cordials will carry a new label design, which we all believe is wonderful and we have high expectations that this will dramatically improve shelf stand-out and brand recognition.” This new design will coincide with the launch of Cox’s Apple and Plum and Pomegranate and Elderflower cordials.

Bottle Green is BRC ‘Grade A’ accredited. This certificate means that it is able to trade with large supermarkets and other businesses. “It is a strenuous process to keep on top of,” Speers says. He explains that it is not a process that can be completed in a matter of weeks, but one that has to be continually maintained. Bottle Green is audited twice a year and has a member of staff running weekly standards checks.

In conclusion, Simon Speers explains that the company’s philosophy is to have “a great tasting natural product that’s packaged stylishly and makes you feel good.” With such a straightforward view, it’s easy to see how the company will continue to grow and hit its goals.

Click here to read the corporate brochure on Bottle Green