News

Bag-in-box leader expands into canned wines

14 August 2024 By Sarah Neish

Luxury boxed wine brand Laylo has branched out with a range of upmarket canned wines for the on-trade and-off-trade. But what’s behind the step-change?

Laylo has built a reputation for itself for being the boxed wine that consumers actually want to display on their table. Tapping into the fact that boxed wines have, in the past, been hidden away in the fridge as a bit of a guilty secret, the brand’s founders decided to turn that notion on its head and put design front and foremost.

Since launching in November 2020, Laylo boxes have been adorned with arresting visuals including vivid abstract, floral and even Portuguese-inspired azulejo prints, and their unique packaging continues to transform attitudes towards boxed wine.

In a first for the brand, Laylo will on 19 August launch three premium wines – a Loire Sauvignon Blanc, Luberon Rosé and Spanish Malbec – in 187ml cans, marking a departure from the brand’s bread-and-butter. The wines have been sourced by Clem Yates MW, who also works with Laylo on its boxed wines, and each can sports the same eye-catching design that is Laylo’s calling card.

“Putting our wine into cans was a natural next step,” says Laylo co-founder Laura Riches, who formerly worked at Naked Wines. “It’s still the same premium wine from our indie winemakers, but to be enjoyed in venues where wine in a glass isn’t suitable… Or where speed is of the essence.”

Riches explains that the thinking behind the side-step is all about offering everyday luxury wines “which you’d buy from a fancy merchant for £12-£15 per bottle… but in a can for trade customers.”

Riches reveals that they “decided to experiment with a small run of our wines in cans” following requests from some existing customers.

About face

But the move is something of an about-face, with Riches having said last year that when Laylo first launched “lots of people told us we should be selling into retail and trade, but we were intentional about building a core of evangelical D2C customers first. Similarly, we’re often asked about other formats such as cans and paper bottles, but we’re choosing to focus on one thing and creating the best version we possibly can.”

Less than 12 months later and Laylo is bringing out a range of canned wines for the trade. It may have something to do with rising duty costs, with Riches divulging last year that where the brand used to pay £6.70 per 2.25l box in duty, this has since jumped up to £8.02. There’s also a sustainability incentive with cans being 100% recyclable (not all components of a bag-in-box wine are always recyclable).

Speaking exclusively to the drinks business Riches says: “It became clear that it doesn’t need to be either/or [boxes or cans]. What’s exciting is that we’ve earned the trust of trade customers through the quality of the wine in boxes, so much so that we have received lots of pre-orders for the cans. I think that’s testament to the years spent really listening to customers (both D2C and trade) and honing our boxed range… Now the time feels right to explore something new.”

Each of the new cans is wrapped in a design inspired by the region that the wine originates from: A blue and white Toile de Jouy visual for the Loire Sauvignon Blanc, a Spanish flamenco fan for the Malbec, and a discarded paint palette for the Luberon Rosé, which the brand says “captures the colours of Provence at dusk.”