Packamama made a recycled wine bottle that fits in your back pocket

Packaging startup Packamama is reinventing the wine bottle by making it flat and conceived from recycled PET. And if that wasn’t enough, it can also fit into your back pocket.

Packamama says it’s a 21st-century solution for a 19th-century technology

The London-based startup, which also has an office in Melbourne, recently completed SparkLab’s Cultiv8 accelerator program in Orange. It aims to provide a modern solution to the centuries-old challenge of bulky and heavy glass bottles.

According to co-founder and CEO, Santiago Navarro, the bottles themselves aren’t only environmentally friendly, but they are more efficient when it comes to storage as well as transport.

“I came up with the packaging myself because I was an online wine retailer. Recognising that wines packaging was its weakest link – glass bottles that are a 19th-century product technology,” Navaroo said to SmartCompany in Orange last week.

“They’re spatially inefficient, heavy. They shatter easily and they contribute the majority of emissions.”

The introduction of Packamama’s flat bottle design represents a strategic departure from industry norms. The lighter and more space-efficient shape of these bottles allows for increased shipping capacity by 30%, while also aiming to reduce transportation-related carbon emissions by an estimated 40%.

“Because of the lightweight strength and the flat pack nature much better for a business getting twice the product and supply chain – 96 dozen on an Australian pallet,” Navarro said.

“Because of that fact, we slash emissions by being more lightweight, using pre-existing materials and fitting so much more product on pallets and trucks and then we’re obviously better for Mother Earth.”

According to Navarro, shortening the supply chain emissions is important, because in the wine industry, it is incredibly long. Even taking global wine consumption out of the picture, in Australia people are getting their daily drinking wine from states away.

“Even in a country like Australia where most states produce enough amazing wine for someone’s entire lifetime enjoyment, people who are in New South Wales expect Western Australian wines. People in Victoria would expect South Australian wine, New South Wales wine, etc,” Navarro said.

“With that in mind, packaging is of fundamental importance to be successful. And then where you make carbon savings, you usually also make cash savings.”

For those who are sceptical, Navarro points to the screw cap. While initially controversial when first introduced in the 1960s, it is now an industry-norm.

“The screwcap for wine is a proud Australian innovation from this great wine producing country. They have been phenomenally successful so much so that 90 to 99% of Australia’s wine bottles are screwcap,” Navarro said.

“It’s nearly impossible if you walk down and wine aisle at a bottle shop here to find the bottle that’s closed on a cork because it makes very little sense. The screw cap is superior, it keeps the wine in better condition.”

Packamama’s financial trajectory and market engagement

Image: Tegan Jones

Financially, Packamama has been active in securing capital, raising $3.2 million so far. The company’s immediate goal is to secure an additional $1 million by the end of the year, contributing to a larger $10 million for further expansion.

And while it has a global presence, it has also been incredibly active within Australia, securing partnerships with Tamburlaine, Accolade Wines and Taylors Wines since launching here in 2022.

The latter two have been offering the Packamama bottles in Liquorland and First Choice Liquors. Coles originally trialled the products across four SKUs in 200 stores. According to Packamama it was incredibly successful and resulted in seven SKUs across 700 stores. The bottles are now being offered alongside their particular varietals, as opposed to being set apart during the trials.

Over the last year, the company has also seen an uptick in social media engagement, with customers sharing pictures of the unique bottles.

While the long-term and widespread adoption of this packaging shift remains to be seen, Packamama’s approach highlights a growing intersection between sustainable practices and logistical optimisation in business operations within the wine industry.

And it’s one we’ve seen locally, with the likes of Fungi Solutions utilising grape waste to create eco-packaging for wines. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a revolution that will see the wine space become more local and emissions-friendly.

The author travelled to Orange as a guest of SparkLabs Cultiv8.