Bosses also blasted a “ridiculous tax” levied on the industry
The Greencroft Two site by Lanchester Group of Companies is now taking shape(Image: Lanchester Group)
Wine bottling firm Greencroft Bottling has blamed disruption in the Suez Canal for marring what would have been an exceptional year.
The County Durham-based business, which claims to be one of the most sustainable large contract firms of its type “on the planet” said temporary closure of the key waterway in 2024 impacted otherwise brilliant results. Attacks by Houthi Rebels on shipping in the Red Sea caused a drastic reduction in traffic through the canal, which Greencroft says caused “havoc” – leading to millions of pounds of penalties and other costs as huge volumes of wine hit North East ports over a two week period.
Despite the challenges, Greencroft, which is part of the Lanchester Group, managed to increase operating profits from £1.56m to £2.78m in the year to the end of June, 2025. Newly published documents also show turnover at the 300-strong firm increased from £62.5m to £86m.
With a £20m new production facility called Greencroft 2 now completed at its Annfield Plain base, and significant investments in sustainability measures, the firm is now looking ahead to what it expects to be its best ever year. Together with a new semi-automated warehouse, the new production facility – with the potential for 400million litres of capacity annually – is expected to make the company the “most efficient wine bottling and storage operation certainly in the UK if not in Europe”.
Bosses also looked forward to the benefits of bulk wine shipping, which is said to be better for the product and give the business high volumes. The new premises, powered by wind and solar energy, has the potential to handle the equivalent of 28% of all wine sold in the UK.
Writing in the Greencroft Bottling Company Limited accounts, managing director Mark Satchwell said: “Greencroft Bottling Company has had an excellent year with volume increasing by well over 20% which is amazing considering we have had such a turbulent year here in the UK, the new 18,000 an hour filling line in Greencroft 2 has been integrated into the business and working well and we have invested in more automation in our tank facility increasing our efficiency more than 40%.
“We continue to invest in the business with more automation to keep our cost base as low as possible the new Labour Government increased wine duty massively again this year after to huge 20% rise just 12 months ago, this is really harming the whole industry with duty alone moving up by nearly 40% over the last 15 months.
“And we have Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to contend with yet another ridiculous tax on all businesses, but the liquor and hospitality industries have been the hardest hit it seems and not surprisingly there is at least one pub a day closing which is really harming the local communities.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login