Making wine sustainable

The world’s biggest producer of French wines has implemented a far-reaching environmental program, and its label converting partners are a strong part of the team. Andy Thomas reports from Bordeaux

Of all the food and drink companies interviewed by L&L in recent years, none has impressed this writer more with their commitment to sustainability than France-based global wine and drinks group Castel.

This family-owned business began producing wine at the end of the 1940s and today grows vines on 1,400 hectares of land across France and another 1,600 hectares in Africa. The group has a turnover in the drinks market of 2.6 billion euros, of which wine accounts for 1.4 billion euros. Castel fills a total of 4.6 billion bottles a year, including 640m bottles of wine.

To give an idea of the scale of the company’s operations, Castel’s La Chappelle- Heulin site in the Loire Valley is claimed Europe’s largest bottling plant measured by volume, with the capacity to fill 200 million bottles a year (75cl or equivalent).

In 2010 Castel launched an ambitious sustainability program, creating the post of environmental manager reporting directly to the board and setting up project teams at the local level.

The Castel Blanquefort establishment is a member of the 1ère Association pour le SME du Vin de Bordeaux, ISO certified 14001. Coded batch numbers now allow full traceability of every bottle of wine the plant produces.

Castel has achieved bio et Terra vitis organic certification for several hundred hectares of domains and chateaux and this program will be expanded. The company is committed to a five percent reduction in energy and water consumption over the next 18 months, along with reduction in CO2 emissions and chemical inputs.

Sustainable packaging

The drive towards sustainable packaging solutions is a key element of Castel’s sustainability drive, with a commitment to increase by five percent the waste it recovers over an 18 month period.

Other packaging and labels-related commitments include introducing solvent-free adhesives; trialing PET bottles made with 25 percent recycled materials; using lightweight bottles; and adhesive labels with recyclable backings (for more information, contact: dev.durable@castel-freres.com).

This is where Castel’s label converter partners enter the story.

According to Franck Crouzet, communications manager at Castel, the company’s use of pressure sensitive labels has been growing, and now accounts for one quarter of its overall wine label usage. It is not only the ‘reserve’ wines, with their more complex decoration, which have moved to PS, but also the company’s mass market table wine brands.

The release liners for these labels had been mainly glassine, but one of Castel’s wine label printers, Aset-Bidoit, had started working with UPM Raflatac’s new ProLiner PP30 thin film liner and brought the idea to Castel.

‘We jumped at it,’ says Franck Crouzet. ‘The reason for adopting this film liner was both economic and ecological. We can run the application machines fastest with PP30, so it was a part of our optimization plan, and at the same time we plan to valorize and recycle the liner waste.’ Castel is now working on the ProLiner project with a number of its label printer partners.

To deal with the collection and recycling of its liner waste, Castel is joining UPM Raflatac’s RafCycle program. The ProLiner PP30 waste is collected and recycled by UPM Raflatac, and glassine liner will go to the French company Vertaris, which recently agreed a joint venture program with UPM to de-siliconize paper liners and make the recyclate available for liner or paper label production.

Castel is now testing collection and sorting systems for its different liner waste streams. ‘Sorting must be done well, and it is now showing good returns,’ says Franck Crouzet.  Under the RafCycle program, UPM Raflatac pays a guaranteed rate per tonne for cleanly sorted ProLiner PP30 waste.

Wider benefits

ProLiner PP30 has other environmental benefits for Castel. It allows the company to get up to 20 percent more labels on a roll, reducing waste on the applicator lines with fewer roll changes. Glassine is typically 60gsm against 30gsm for PP30, so there are savings here in transport costs and waste volume.

The filmic liner also allows Castel to run its label application machines faster without having to worry about web breaks. Label printers have more latitude in die cutting with the ProLiner PP30, since any slight cut through to the glassine liner will increase the possibility of a web break on the applicator. A further advantage is the absence of paper dust both on the printing press and the applicator line.

Castel has now been using ProLiner PP30 for two years at its Beziers filling center, and one year in Blanquefort. The company has invested in new high speed label applicator machines as part of the ProLiner introduction and this has allowed an increase in machine speeds from 12,000 bottles/hour to 25,000 b/h. Machines running filmic liner can also accelerate more quickly than with paper without risking a web break.

The face materials used range from standard grades for high volume blended table wines to specialty wine label papers with moisture-resistant treatments allowing seven to10 years cellar storage for vintage wines. ProLiner is used more for the high volume table wines and PET liners for the premium Chateaux wines.

ProLiner PP30 is currently offered with the latest versatile hot melt adhesive. ‘ProLiner is already available on all our most popular paper face materials,’ says Franck Accornero, UPM Raflatac France sales manager. ‘And filmic face materials are just around the corner.  Today Honey Glassine remains our biggest selling liner in France, but ProLiner is growing really fast.’

The example of Castel demonstrates that companies with a high level of commitment to sustainability can benefit in all sorts of ways – increased production efficiency, turning waste into a valuable commodity and bolstering wider public commitments to a sustainable future. 

Beyond wine

As well as wine, Castel has become a major player in the African beer and soft drinks markets. Its BGI subsidiary owns 41 brewers across 20 African countries, and partners with some of the world leading drinks brands including SAB Miller, INBEV, Diageo and Coca-Cola. It also owns 475 retail stores in France and 55 in Belgium, UK, Morocco and Russia under the Nicolas name. 

Export by design

Castel’s global operations take place in 26 foreign subsidiaries and an extensive network of distributors. The company claims to be the biggest producer of French wines in the world – some 100 million bottles a year. Altogether, sales export increased by eight percent last year, representing over 20 percent of the company’s turnover, and Castel has seen a 13 percent increase in international sales of its Castel Chateaux and Domaines wines up to May 2011.

The most important ‘mature’ export markets are the UK, Germany and Japan. Castel claims to be the leading exporter of French wines to China with some 20 million bottles in 2010.

The label design elements for an export wine are a lot different to the traditional French approach. Selling abroad has involved the creation of a recognizable brand, and the ‘Famille Castel’ name and coat of arms are prominent at the top of every label. The labels also emphasize the grape variety first and then the Maison.

‘The label is the first part of the communication a consumer can see,’ says Franck Crouzet. ‘France and international markets are not identical, and a product that is good for France might not be especially good for export. There are some markets interested in value the same way as France – Japan for example – but other markets are more interested in the brand. That is why the family Castel created a brand name and an image.’ 

Pictured: Franck Crouzet, communications manager at Castel

This article was published in L&L issue 4, 2011