Bottlegreen

The iconic drinks brand whose elderflower cordials and presses ignited the premiumisation of the adult soft drinks market.

Piper backed an MBO in 2007, exited in 2011.

Bottlegreen was set up in 1989 by Kit and Shireen Morris who employed their wine making skills to develop their hero product, the Bottlegreen Elderflower Cordial using a cold press process.

By 2007, when Piper backed the incumbent Managing Director Simon Speers in the management buyout, Kit and Shireen had decided they wished to return to wine making. They believed the business could thrive even more with professional management and additional investment in the brand’s packaging and marketing.

The investment enabled Bottlegreen to expand its range and broaden its distribution, but more importantly strengthen the business by developing the brand and creating a direct communication strategy with consumers. By using customer insight work, we helped define the brands positioning, ensuring the business focused on driving Bottlegreen branded sales, core product development and targeting focused NPD.

We helped build out the team by introducing both a Financial Director and Marketing Director. All of this drove significant sales increases and an 11% improvement in margin. They also expanded internationally into Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Over the period of the investment, consumer awareness of the brand in the UK jumped from 5% in 2007 to 15% in 2010.

By building strong relationships with targeted trade buyers, achieving a pre-emptive bid at exit. In 2011, we sold to SHS, the Northern Irish-based food group achieving a 5x multiple on our four year investment.