The Canned Wine Group pipped the post with an entry that focused on plans to diversify from its current offering of supplying a range of wines in cans to the retail and hospitality industry, to develop its ‘Copper Crew’ range of wine in kegs.

During his pitch, Ben Franks shared the Group’s ambition is to roll-out wine on tap into venues across the UK, becoming the single serve house wine nationwide.

Ben explained that the Copper Crew project would ensure customers could get quality wine by the glass as well as cutting down on the huge amount of wine wasted by the hospitality industry each year.

“The current wastage challenge across the hospitality industry is significant. 650 million bottles of wine are wasted every year, meaning the cost of selling wine by the glass is significantly high. Canned Wine Group’s solution increases flexibility around the ‘by the glass’ serve through delivering 20 litre KeyKegs, each equivalent to 26 bottles of wine. KeyKegs reduce packaging, storage requirements and emissions and reduces the number of shipments required for the same volume of wine. Each KeyKeg has a guaranteed shelf life of six weeks, minimising liquid waste to close to zero,” he added.

Ben was modest about the win, he said, “It’s fantastic to be in a room with so many other great Bath businesses. There’s a lot that goes on in the South West. So many look to London for startups. Canned Wine Group co-founder Simon Rollings and I love the city, and we wouldn’t go anywhere else. The more you can get out and support Bath businesses the better, so here’s to Bath!”