Colruyt Group Celebrates 80 Years Of Coffeeroasting And Wine Bottling
Roasting coffee, Colruyt Group has been doing it for 80 years. And this makes us unique, because we are the only Belgian retailer having its own coffee-roasting plant today. We have also been bottling wine for 80 years. Every year we roast 6,500 tonnes of coffee beans. By developing craftsmanship in the company, Colruyt Group can control the production process, price and sustainability aspects of its own coffee. The same goes for wine, as the group has its own bottling plant on the same site at Ghislenghien. Colruyt Group will continue to invest in its own production plants in the years to come.
More control over quality and sustainability
The coffee-roasting and wine bottling plants are part of Colruyt Group Fine Food, that combines all production departments of the retail group. Manager Stefan Goethaert explains why in-house craftsmanship is so important to the group: “On the Belgian retail market, we represent 30 % of the sale of coffee. More than half are private label coffees: Graindor, Boni Selection Bio and Everyday. Because we roast them, we can control the quality, sustainability and price. And that is good for our customers, since they can count on tasteful coffees with a correct price/quality ratio.”
Colruyt Group also pays attention to sustainable coffee-growing that respects the environment and increases the standard of living of the coffee farmers. Our origin coffees all bear the Rainforest Alliance label. By mid-2017, the group wants 75 % of the coffee beans for its roasting plant to be certified with a sustainability label such as UTZ, Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade.
High tech bottling line
The history of Colruyt Group’s wine bottling plant is equally long. The first wine was bottled in 1937 by founder Franz Colruyt under the name Soubirac. Today, the group bottles 120 different wines on a high-technological bottling line, or 28 million litres of wine a year. The group keeps investing and innovating. In 1979, it was the first retailer to market the party-box. Since 1995 we only use reusable bottles for the wines we bottle. These bottles can be reused 7 times. This means that we bring 6 to 7 times fewer new bottles in circulation, or 2,500 tonnes of glass.
80 years of craftsmanship in the spotlight
Colruyt Group will not let this jubilee year pass unnoticed. All the wines we bottle receive a special cap with the ’80 years home bottling’ logo. Our master roaster Kris Durant created an exclusive Graindor coffee blend for the 80th anniversary of the roasting. A mild espresso coffee, available in ground version and in caps. Colruyt’s cooking team created a recipes booklet about coffee. Customers will receive it for free with a sample of the special coffee blend for 80 years Graindor, when they buy 2 Graindor coffee packages.