Encirc appoints managing director for beverage unit

Encirc has appointed Richard Lloyd to the position of Managing Director of its ‘Encirc Beverages’ business unit, as the glass container manufacturer and filler continues to integrate ‘The Park’ bottling and warehousing facility in Bristol into its overall business.

The Park acquisition completed in early 2023 from Accolade Wines. The deal saw Encirc double its UK filling capability to more than 400 million litres per year. More than 400 people also transferred to Encirc as part of the acquisition.

Richard Lloyd has successfully led the Park – a ‘highly advanced, sustainable and award winning bottling facility’ – as General Manager for seven years. His new role for Encirc will see him at the helm of developing and leading Encirc’s much expanded “Encirc Beverages” business unit.

Encirc, a Vidrala company, manufactures more than 4 billion glass containers a year for the UK and Irish food and drinks market, and opened its site in Cheshire in 2005, after beginning glass production in 1998 at its plant in County Fermanagh, NI. The Cheshire plant remains the only facility globally to both manufacture and fill bottles for multiple brands from one site.

“The Park and Encirc’s Cheshire site have together changed the dynamics for international wine entering the UK market,” says the company. “They have enabled more wine being bulk-shipped directly to the UK, to then be filled in the country of sale before onward distribution to retailers.

“Now the acquisition of The Park – based in Avonmouth, Bristol – is complete, it will work fully in sync with Encirc’s wider business model, filling bottles produced in Encirc’s two UK-based plants. Immediate investment will be made into The Park, with a new glass filling line set to be introduced in 2024, enhancing Encirc’s filling capability further-still.”