Westons Cider unveils new £3m canning line

Westons Cider has brought all packaging in house, establishing a brand-new canning line at its Herefordshire mill.

Reflecting the increasing dominance of canned products within the cider category and beyond, the new production line can produce 12,500 cans per hour. The facility has become operational earlier this month by packaging 440ml cans of Stowford Press.

The £3 million investment also represents a significant step forward for Westons Cider, as it continues to target ambitious growth plans amid a challenging year for cider in the on-trade.

“Over the past year it’s become clear just how important it is for us to control our own destiny, particularly when it comes to getting our world-renowned ciders from our mill into people’s hands,” Helen Thomas, managing director at Westons Cider, said.

“Bringing all of our canning requirements in house means we’ll control our supply chain end to end and will no longer be reliant on third parties. This will mean we can provide a better service to our customers by responding even more quickly to future upticks in shopper demand.

“We see this as a great opportunity to futureproof the Westons Cider business by removing some of our external costs – plus the price fluctuations that often come with these – and exploring packaging alliances with some of our key partners.”

Cans have become a key format for the cider category in recent years, as shoppers move away from value amber and white ciders, often packaged in plastic bottles, towards more premium options. Cans now make up 59 per cent of all off-trade cider sales.

“Last year, as shoppers’ habits changed due to the impact of Covid-19, many of us switched to less frequent, higher spend shopping trips. This means multipacks, particularly those in canned formats, now command even more attention in-store. In fact, our Stowford Press 10-pack is up 540 per cent year-on-year, demonstrating just how popular larger pack formats are becoming,” Thomas added.

Westons Cider currently operates comprehensive on-site packaging facilities for all its bottled, bag-in-box and draught ciders lines. The cider maker’s latest investment will mean all cider cans produced will now be packaged at its site in Much Marcle, Herefordshire.

The family business has also given a packaging refresh to Stowford Press four-pack to further hero the canned format. The updated multipack will incorporate a lighter cardboard structure, meaning 29 tonnes of cardboard is removed from across the brand every year. It will appear on shop shelves from June.