In June 2020, Frugalpac launched the Frugal Bottle – the world’s first and only commercially available paper bottle for wines and spirits. It’s made from 94% recycled paperboard with a food grade pouch to hold the liquid, is five times lighter than a glass bottle and crucially uses six times less carbon and energy to produce and dispose. 

More than 45 different drinks producers from around the world have now launched 128 different SKUs of wines, spirits and olive oils in the Frugal Bottle. Frugal Bottles are available in 25 countries including Australia, Japan, North America, Canada, the UK, across Europe, Scandinavia, and South Africa. Frugalpac also aims to decarbonise the global drinks industry by selling its Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines (‘FBAM-1’) into local wine producing regions, allowing the bottles to be produced and filled closer to drinks producers. 

KinsBrae Packaging in Canada bought the first machine to serve the Canadian and North American drinks markets and became operational in January 2024. And in the US, a second Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine will start producing paper bottles in California’s Monterey Wine Compa ny later this year and Frugalpac has just received a letter of intent to sell a machine to Australia’s Mother of Pearl Vodka. 

Frugalpac also has strong enquiries from more than 100 other international brands, contract packing and packaging companies to buy Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines. In the UK, several brands have won listings with Frugal Bottles in major UK supermarkets. Leading gin brand Greenall’s launch ed its first paper Frugal Bottle gin in Sainsbury’s supermarkets across the UK in October 2022. In 2023, When in Rome became the first paper bottle wine producer to win a supermarket listing with two SKUs on sale in 450 Sainsbury’s stores, Interpunkt with Journey’s End Vineyards won UK listings in All Bar One, Castle and Stonegate pubs and Morrisons supermarket and Aldi have just launched two own brand wines and a gin in the Frugal Bottle too. 

In September 2023, Frugalpac was invited by the Department for Business and Trade to exhibit at Franco British trade event in Bordeaux, to mark the King and Queen’s State Visit. To mark the occasion, Frugalpac presented the Queen with commemorative Cardboardeaux bottles. Earlier in 2023, Frugalpac’s bottles were also showcased at the British Embassy in Paris for the King’s Birthday and Frugal Bottles were sent by the DBT to Australian and New Zealand Trade Ministers to mark the start of the Free Trade Agreements. 

2023 was an award-winning year for Frugalpac, winning Best in Class for Technical Design in Packaging Innovation at the PAC Global Packaging Awards in New York, Small Business of the Year at the UK Green Business Awards, the East Anglian Daily Press Business Award for Innovation and this month (May) a King’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation.