A Sparkling Success In New Partnership With The Holburne Museum Café

Sparkling Cans Outsell Prosecco by 45%

We launched our canned wines at The Holburne Museum’s café to offer a more sustainable single serve option, and to elevate the quality of wine on offer. As a local business, we were also ecstatic to supply this wonderful venue at the head of Bath’s Great Pulteney Street. Since launching with The Holburne, our client has seen a 57.4% year on year growth in its still wine sales and a 45.2% growth in its sparkling sales since our Charmat method sparkling Chardonnay replaced their single serve Prosecco offering. Guests of The Holburne want to while away the afternoon in Sydney Gardens with a quality glass of wine, or relax in the café after viewing the Museum works with something special. Our wines deliver a memorable conversation starter and, most importantly, taste amazing. Regulars to the café have been converted into fans of cans and the proof is in the numbers.

Canned Wine Co. is a perfect match for our drinks offer at Holburne Café – a premium single-serving option that is sustainable, has a great message behind it, and also happens to be based just down the road, couldn’t be better.

For a lot of our customer base the notion of wine in a can is brand new, and Canned Wine Co. presents them with an opportunity to try something different and learn about a rapidly developing sector of the wine industry. We have always found that products that offer a ‘story’ perform best with our customers.

Throughout the implementation of cans into our core drinks range, the team at Canned Wine Co. have been on hand to help; providing tastings, talking directly to our customers and partnering on a number of events. The cans have been the perfect accompaniment to picnics at July’s Garden Theatre Festival, to jazz on the terrace at our August UpLate and most recently at our exclusive invite-only Private View event in the museum ballroom.

The September Private View was by far our most engaging yet, with customers approaching the Canned Wine Co. bar full of intrigue, queries and even hesitation. Fortunately, Ben and Lauren were on hand to talk them through the wines, answer their questions and showcase their expertise. Whilst it’s always wonderful to see a customer enjoying their canned wine, there’s nothing better than seeing a sceptic change their mind.

Alex Salzedo
General Manager
Graysons Restaurant at The Holburne Museum

Building Lasting Relationships

As a premium brand focused on delivering experiences, it’s essential for us to build relationships with our customers. Graysons, the caterers of The Holburne Café, have been excellent partners in delivering our wines to their discerning guests. We’ve collaborated on some brilliant events, supporting everything from an outdoor Sherlock Holmes theatre festival to a VIP private viewing for trustees at their latest art exhibition.

We know the format of the can is still new for lots of customers and that not every wine in can has got it spot on. As a wine-first business, we make sure to deliver quality in every serve. That means when a customer of The Holburne tries our wines for the first time, the proof is in the taste. So how do we get customers tasting for the first time?

This is where our on-trade experience is essential. We worked with Alex and his team at The Holburne to put on the calendar of events and sampling sessions to get liquid on lips and prove that the can is every bit as good as from the bottle when you drink Canned Wine Co. We worked closely with Graysons to advise on storage, POS, opened up new sales locations at the venue for events and even provided staff for activations while ensuring all the sales still went through their till.

Investing in our customers means we all sell more wine and customers can enjoy a fresh wine every time.

For The Holburne Café and Museum, our beautifully designed cans also keep the artistic threat flowing through their wine offering. The can labels feature designs by Neil Tully MW, based on our buyer’s tasting notes, and give a visual impression of what the wine inside will taste like. They pop from the fridge shelves and encourage customers to give them a try.

We’re excited to grow the partnership from this flying start and continue to deliver maximum value.