Sandford Orchards invests £1.2m in cider operations

UK cider maker Sandford Orchards has invested £1.2 million to expand its bottling and canning capabilities.

Founded in 2002, Devon-based Sandford Orchards offers a range of ciders including flavoured offerings and session ciders, with new vintage ciders set to launch in March.

The company’s recent expansion of its packaging capabilities included setting up its own canning line for the first time.

“At the beginning of the first lockdown, our usual canning business became too busy to provide us with the capacity that we needed,” said Barny Butterfield, Sandford Orchards’ chief cidermaker.

“We knew that canned cider offered us a huge potential market, as it is not well served by quality craft ciders, so we took the plunge and invested in our own in-house canning line which delivers 3,500 cans of cider per hour.

“In the same period, we also purchased brand new state-of-the-art bottling machinery to allow us to meet the growing demand for our products and match our ambitious projections. This has tripled our bottling rate to an impressive 6,000 bottles an hour.”

Alongside this, the company says that it has increased automation in its kegging line and implemented a new branding strategy.

Butterfield continued: “With our new branding and expanded capacity we are starting 2021 in a strong position to meet the needs of our fast-growing fan base as well as those consumers wanting to trade up to something more authentic and better tasting.”