Interior Beverage Bottles
An Okanagan company has teamed up with an American bottle supplier to service the local wine and cider industry. “Saxco International is an industry leader for rigid packaging in the US,” says Ken Millen, GM of Kelowna-based Interior Beverages. “As their BC agent, we are able to provide a full range of bottles and packaging supplies for wineries and cideries.”
Although they have had enquiries from large wineries like Quail’s Gate, Millen describes their target customer as the boutique to mid-size winery. “We are talking about the outfit that may be only producing 3000 cases a year,” he says. “They are not buying a trailer load of bottles or corks and they might only have storage space for a couple of pallets.”
Millen says they have settled on Burgundy and Bordeaux style bottles. “Those are the most common and sought-after bottles for wineries in BC,” he notes. “We also carry a full range of corks, screw caps, and closures.”
Interior Beverages has 14,000 square feet of warehouse space and are continuously stocking bottling supplies. “We are prepared for large or small orders,” says Millen. “If you run out something in the middle of your bottling run, you can hop in your pickup and come and get it, or we provide weekly deliveries with our trucks.”
With over 800 clients in the hospitality and beverage industry across the interior, you will be dealing with a company with a 30-year track record of service. “Service is what we do,” says Millen, explaining that the company started out supplying and servicing beer and other beverage equipment, and now install fresh tap wine systems throughout the valley, as well as brewery and cidery tasting room hookups. “Our goal is to support the local and smaller winery by always having bottling products they can use.”