Pernod Ricard has entered a five-year global licensing agreement with Ecospirits, a circular packaging company, to distribute its brands in on-premise venues.
Ecospirits Pernod Ricard Ecototes Credit: Pernod Ricard
This partnership follows a 2022 pilot project with the Singapore-founded packaging company.
The global rollout will involve packaging and distributing Pernod Ricard’s Beefeater London Dry gin, Havana Club rum, and Absolut vodka using Ecospirits’ custom storage and dispenser system.
Ecospirits’ primary system, the Ecotote, is a reusable glass container holding 4.5 liters of liquid, encased in a branded outer shell. It aims to reduce packaging waste by providing refillable containers to on-premise locations.
Ecospirits’ containers are internet-connected, enabling them to report depletion levels. The system also supports spirit pouring according to local measurements. To support local bottling and refilling, Ecospirits maintains a facility known as an ‘Ecoplant,’ which functions as a bottling and Ecotote cleaning unit.
Pernod Ricard announced that the system has been “consolidated at an industry level” at its Havana Club distillery in San José de las Lajas, where an ‘Ecoplant’ has been established to service the rum’s home market. However, the group has not provided details on additional markets for the system.
“Pernod Ricard and Ecospirits have been working together for almost three years to make circularity a reality in the spirits industry. This new global agreement builds on that journey, and our combined expertise, to bring circular packaging to more Pernod Ricard markets worldwide,” said Ecospirits CEO Paul Gabie.
Last year, Diageo announced it would start rolling out the Ecotote systems in 2024 and would analyze the pilot’s results over three years to assess the system’s “sustainability benefits.”
In 2022, Ecospirits deployed SmartKiosk refill machines for spirit bottles in retail stores in Singapore and plans a similar deployment in the European market.
This alcohol vending system allows consumers to refill branded spirit bottles at local supermarkets, reducing the need for single-use glass and plastics. The SmartKiosk uses a touch screen and bottles equipped with NFC authentication tags.
