Why Boxed Wines Rule Today

A dollar sales increase of almost 25% and a unit-volume sales increase of 4% for boxed wines in the 52-weeks/year ending February 22 is a real eyeopener -- or shall we say, wine-box-tap-opener. Driving this winning streak for wines sold in U.S. food and drug stores is clearly price.

Lewis Perdue, in his March 6 Wine Industry Insights newsletter, analyzed Information Resources Inc data and stated: "As expected, lower-price-point box wines scored the biggest gains with box wines costing less than $2 for a 750 ml equivalents posting a 41.5 percent gain."

For those manufacturers of bag-in-box packaging equipment, it's an "I told you so" moment. Christopher Rutter, founder of Rapak Inc. (Union City, CA) and currently Director of Product Development, said "It was only a matter of time and economics before US consumers discovered the great value and great wine product quality that's to be had in boxed wines."

Rutter hails from Australia originally, and for the almost-twenty years that I've known him, he has been a steady proponent of boxed beverages, from dairy to juice to beverage concentrates to wines. But it is the wine segment that is dearest to his heart.

"So many advancements have been made in barrier packaging and in taps for wine boxes that the problems of the 1980's with oxygen permeation are not a factor at all anymore." Rutter said. "This means that wines like Black Box, which use our packaging equipment, give consumers a great wine experience at a value price."

Since so many wines are produced to be consumed quickly (and ARE consumed quickly!), shelf life is becoming less of a concern all across the retail wine spectrum. But some consumers have been concerned about the freshness of a wine they can't see. The boxed wine industry's success with high quality wines like Black Box has helped to overcome that apprehension.

Today, even small and medium sized wineries can enter this market. To produce boxed wine cost efficiently, Rapak offers its Model 330 bag-in-box wine filler at an equipment cost that’s significantly lower than other entry-level bag-in-box fillers. It can produce 10,000-150,000 3-Liter Boxes annually, and also be used to produce 18-liter bags for the foodservice/institutional market.

For more information on the newsletter, contact Lewis Purdue via his website: http://wineindustryinsight.com/ For more information on bag-in-box filling equipment, contact Rapak (http://www.rapak.com/) and ask for Chris Rutter.

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Disclosure: As part of my portfolio of writing and marketing communications skills, I also do press release writing for a few wineries and a few suppliers to the wine industry for pay. Parts of this blogpost originated as a press release for Rapak.