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O’Neill Vintners & Distillers buys ‘wellness’ wine brand

US-based O’Neill Vintners & Distillers has announced the acquisition of FitVine Wine for an undisclosed sum, a “wellness” brand which markets its wines as low in sugar, tannins and sul­fites, in the hopes of “appealing to the modern wine drinker”.

O'Neill Vintners & Distillers buys 'wellness' wine brand

Co-founders Tom Beat­on and Mark War­ren launched FitVine in 2015 “to dis­rupt per­cep­tions of wine not fit­ting into active con­sumer lifestyles”, its new owner has said. The range is made up of a selection of single varietal wines marketed on a message of low sugar, low tannins and low sulfites.

The acqui­si­tion of FitVine is intended to extend O’Neill Vint­ners & Dis­tillers’ port­fo­lio of brands in the pre­mi­um-and-above wine segment. The company gained B Corp certification in July 2022.

“Our focus for the last sev­en years has been to build a port­fo­lio of great brands appeal­ing to the mod­ern wine drinker,” said Jeff O’Neill, founder and CEO, of O’Neill Vint­ners & Dis­tillers. ​“We see a tremen­dous oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue to strength­en and expand FitVine nation­al­ly dri­ven by our com­mer­cial team, dis­trib­u­tors, and trade partners.”

FitVine pro­duces Cal­i­for­nia vari­etal wines in the range of RRP US$16 to $20 includ­ing Sauvi­gnon Blanc, Chardon­nay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Caber­net Sauvi­gnon, and Pros­ec­co from Italy.

Eric Bradley, exec­u­tive vice-pres­i­dent at Berks Group, the major­i­ty own­er of FitVine, called the O’Neill port­fo­lio “a nat­ur­al fit and evo­lu­tion for FitVine, where the brand will accel­er­ate its expan­sion and recruit more pas­sion­ate con­sumers through­out the coun­try”.

He added: “We are incred­i­bly proud of the well­ness brand we have built in part­ner­ship with Tom and Mark and are con­fi­dent FitVine wines will con­tin­ue to deliv­er excep­tion­al qual­i­ty and trans­paren­cy to con­sumers under the lead­er­ship of the tal­ent­ed team at O’Neill.”

In other news, low-calorie alcohol retailer Drinkwell received a £1m investment from a private investor earlier this year, helping to fuel its ambitious expansion plans.

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