’Bio’teille’, a cross between a bottle and a box of wine, launches

This is the story of two backpackers frustrated at having to carry bottles of wine, which are too heavy and cumbersome...” The video presenting the start-up by Victor Roux and Marin Belorgey, recipients of master's degrees from Kedge Business School, answers an explicit problem right off the bat. In a bid to provide the solution, the two backpackers worked on an innovative format, a combination of box and bottle with multiple advantages: “At 53 grams, our bottle is 8 times lighter (450 g for a glass bottle), stays fresh 40% longer once taken out of the refrigerator and generates 5 times fewer CO2 emissions over its entire life cycle (as per research conducted by the eco-design cluster)”, says the press release.

Fitted with a biodegradable shell which encloses a single-layer plastic bag, the featherweight Bio'teille also rationalises the supply chain - 4,000 units can be loaded onto a pallet, compared with an average of 1,300 bottles weighing 590 kilos. Targeting a young consumer audience, but also more traditional consumers potentially receptive to the format’s pragmatic approach, the Bio'teille is not designed for age-worthy wines. “We are currently working with two winegrowers in Provence. Their wines are light, and some of them are rosés. We are planning a tour of France to gauge interest in other wine regions”, explains Belorgey.

From a distribution perspective, the designers of the hybrid bottle are targeting outlets offering a wide range of organic wines (Biocoop, Monoprix, etc.), but have not ruled out supermarket chains, which have shown a willingness to ramp up their range of wines with environmental credentials over the past few years: “We are in discussions with Intermarché in our area”, says Belorgey.