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Encirc: The mighty ones
When glass manufacturer and filler Encirc acquired bottling-and-distribution company The Park in February 2023, a new logistics heavyweight was born.
Earlier this year saw the merging of two logistics giants when glass expert and filler Encirc snapped up The Park, another major wine filling operation.
The combined business, Encirc Beverages, is now responsible for 400 million litres of predominantly wine, as well as some beer and soft drinks, accounting for more than a third of the UK’s glass filling. The company is also eyeing up expansion into the world of spirits.
“Through acquiring The Park, Encirc has effectively doubled its filling capacity,” says Oliver Harry, head of corporate affairs, to become what he calls “an unrivalled proposition”.
With three facilities in the UK, as well as a site in Milan, Italy, the new supercompany is a one-stop shop for drinks brands selling their products in the UK. From firing up its furnaces in its two UKbased plants to make billions of glass containers to filling these same bottles in one of its dedicated filling sites, and distributing the end product to retailers, Encirc Beverages can take care of it all.
“We are utterly thrilled to be part of an organisation that has been really bold over the last 25 years,” says Richard Lloyd, previously the general manager of The Park, and now managing director of Encirc Beverages.
The business is laser-focused on its goal to streamline the UK logistics chain for bulk wine, and in doing so create a national distribution hub for drinks. Above all, says Lloyd, Encirc Beverages wants to be “the catalyst for change” in the industry. He tells the drinks business: “It’s not just the scale of the business that make us unique, but its intent. We have a genuine desire to facilitate industry solutions, and to be the catalyst for further change, and now we have the scale and the infrastructure to do so. We don’t own any drinks brands – we’re an independent business – so we are in a unique position to be able to offer unbiased advice to some of the biggest names in wine.“
Plans are already afoot to link the company’s Elton facility, the only site globally to combine glass making and filling in one location, to Bristol, where further filling takes place, by way of rail. “We will in the future be moving up to 70% of glass bottles by train rather than truck,” Lloyd says. It’s a sizable step towards creating a more sustainable industry, underpinned by Encirc Beverage’s aspiration to power its glass furnaces using hydrogen from later on this decade.
Into the future
Richard Lloyd (right in main photo) has been appointed as managing director of Encirc Beverages as the glass manufacturer and filler continues to integrate The Park’s bottling and warehousing facility in Bristol into its overall business.
Lloyd has successfully led The Park as general manager for seven years. His new role for Encirc Beverages will see him work to change the dynamics for international wine entering the UK market, enabling more wine to be bulk-shipped directly to the UK, where it will be filled before onward distribution to UK retailers. Lloyd will oversee the installation of a new glass-filling line in 2024, and account for more than 400 staff who transferred to Encirc Beverages as part of the acquisition.
“We are now working at a scale and capability never seen before in the UK supply chain for glass,” he says. “Given the skill and scale of our new combined business, I truly believe there are some transformational, along with incremental, improvements that can be made in areas such as sustainability, quality, customer service, and product design. The synergies between The Park and Encirc are huge. I’m looking forward to building on the foundations already in place to continue to develop and drive forward the world’s most sustainable beverages supply chain.”
“The work that’s happening now in glass production will have big benefits in the long term,” says Harry. “Encirc Beverages is working towards achieving zero-carbon glass from 2030.”
Diageo has already committed to taking a large percentage of bottles created in the low carbon melting process. However, all customers will benefit from Encirc Beverage’s decarbonisation journey.
The company continues to work with the world’s largest drinks brands and is currently in discussions with “major industry players”, which will push Encirc Beverages to the forefront of logistics operations in the UK. Importantly, the company’s drinks and retail partners also share its green-minded approach. “No one can reach Net Zero on their own. It has to be a collaboration along the supply chain,” says Lloyd.
Smart Glass
The concept of an ‘intelligent supply chain’ is in Encirc Beverage’s DNA. The company is making moves to progress the digitalisation of glass, and already has the capability to imprint laser QR codes onto many of its bottles, which could assist the forthcoming deposit-return scheme. “This is just one of the things we could facilitate. Consumers can then scan the QR code on the bottle directly from their doorstep,” says Lloyd.
