Viña Concha y Toro has committed to reduce the weight of the packaging across its wine portfolio, signing up to the Sustainable Wine Roundtable’s ‘Bottle Weight Accord’.
The agreement, which came into being just over a year ago, requires signatories to commit to shifting their bottles’ unit weight to under 420g by the end of next year. According to the member-funded organisation, the current average weight of an empty wine bottle is 550g.
Concha y Toro, which is headquartered in Chile and also owns wine businesses in Argentina and the US, has joined the likes of retailers Lidl, Systembolaget and Tesco in signing the accord.
“The fact that key retailers from around the world are also signatories to the Bottle Weight Accord gives it extra impact and influence,” said the group’s sustainability director, Valentina Lira. “We are confident that we are well on the way to the 420g average thanks to great efforts made by our product design, packaging, production and sustainability teams to date.
“This is just the first step for us as we look to continue reducing the weight of our bottles and incorporate new formats in the future.”
The Sustainable Wine Roundtable’s director of research, Peter Stanbury, added: “South America is one of the regions which historically has seen some of the heavier wine bottles used, so it is great to see Concha y Toro … take the lead in committing to a lightweighting standard.”
In results for the first nine months of this year, released last month, the Casillero del Diablo brand owner booked a near-17% leap in year-on-year sales, albeit on a reported basis.
