Lanchester Wines and Adnams strike green partnership

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 07 August, 2018

Durham-based merchant Lanchester Wines has produced a range of wines for Suffolk-based brewer, distiller and retailer Adnams, with a focus on sustainability.

Hailing from Chile, Argentina, USA, New Zealand and Australia, the wines will be imported and managed by Lanchester and bottled at its sister company Greencroft Bottling for Adnams’ new world ranges.

They will also feature in the agency side of Lanchester’s business.

The partnership builds on the two companies’ focus on reducing their environmental impact, while growing the business and "sourcing quality wines", the comapnies said today in a joint statement.

Integral to this strategy is shipping the wine in re-usable flexitanks which can be converted between a dry goods and a liquid carrier, thus resulting in “significant carbon savings to the wines’ journey” according to Adnams’ wine buyer Lydia Harrowven.

“A flexitank containing 24,000 litres will fit a 20ft container, while the same volume in bottle would require two 40ft containers, saving over 4.5 tonnes carbon equivalents per flexitank from the shipping fuel alone. This approach provides customers with fresher wines, improved quality and a reduced environmental imp act than those bottled at source," she said.

Both companies have done their bit to go green in recent years.

Family-owned Lanchester Wines has received over £8million of private investment in clean, renewable heat and energy generation.

According to the company, Greencroft Bottling has bottled 36% more wine this year than the previous year but using less electricity overall by changing lighting to LED, new and more efficient machinery and “simply turning things off that are not being used”.

Meanwhile Adnams has built an eco-friendly distribution centre and has moved to 100% renewable electricity across their operations.

Photo shows the Adnams buying team: Dan Kirby, Lydia Harrowven and James Davis

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