Lanchester Wines invests £20m in "most sustainable building on the planet" for new bottling plant

UK-based Lanchester Wines has invested over £20m into a new state of the art bottling plant, which the company claims will be “the most sustainable such building of its kind on the planet.”  

But founder and co-owner of the sustainable energy pioneering business Tony Cleary believes that he will soon reap the rewards of his investment via energy savings. “What’s good for the planet is good for the business too,” he told the Buyer. He estimates that since 2011 the company has spent around £10m on renewables, with wind turbines, solar panels and heat pump technology. The new building (dubbed Greencroft Two) will be around £15m to complete, and a further £3m has been spent on additional sustainablity features.

“However, the amount of heat we will need will be a third of a normal building, and we’ll be generating our own power, so at currently electricity pricing, we should have our money back on the solar installation in four years, which allows us to continue to invest in further sustainability measures,” he said.  

The new building will cover over 22,000 square metres, which is the equivalent of around four football pitches, doubling the bottling capacity at the company’s Durham-based Greenfcroft Bottling plant to around 400m litres a year which accounts for over a quarter (28%) of all the wine sold in the UK. When it is in full operation, the new premises could accommodate up to ten bottling lines and seven other lines for bag in box, pouches, key kegs, cans or other new types of envionmentally friendly packaging.  

The roof of the building will also have what Cleary claims to be the UK’s first dual function insultation panels with inbuilt solar power units, enabling them to both insulate and generate. “We are the first facility in Britain to have them installed,” confirmed Cleary. “Kingspan has made a special production run just for us, because we have such a good reputation for sustainability.”  

The advanced technology means that Greencroft will achieve improved levels of thermal performance, and is the first time they will be fitted on a roof. With two Megawatts of solar power which will create around 1.7m kilowatt hours of electricity per year, the solar panels are efficient at cooler temperaturres which is fortunate given County Durham’s sunny, yet cool climate. To maximise the potential of the panels, the company have adjusted the gradient of the roof to make the most of the sunlight. At the normal gradient, the panels would have produced 400kw hours, but by tilting them, they produce 700kw. Back up power will be provided by existing wind turbines, and at a later date, batteries will be installed to store the power that is generated.

“The challenge with renewable energy is that’s it’s not always used when it’s produced,” explained Cleary, adding that when Greencroft Two is complete, it will generate over 7m Kilowatt hours per year of energy, so we’ll be like a mini power station.”  

The new building is on track to be fully operational by spring 2023, though the roof should be complete by the end of June and wall panels in situ by August making the builidg wind and water tight and available for warehouse use initially.

“If more people do what we’re doing, we won’t need nuclear power stations, fossil fuels or Russian gas.  We’re a family business so if we can do it, then the big companies certainly can, because, for us, being carbon neutral is just the beginning.”