The company Embouteillage Services is diversifying at the ZAC des Trois Fontaines in Pouget

In terms of capacity, EVA can produce, at a minimum, 11 million bottles per year. Midi Libre – JEROME MOUILLOT

Pierre Beauclair, patron de la société d’Embouteillage Services. Midi Libre – JEROME MOUILLOT

The new company, EVA, headed by Pierre Beauclair, completes the historical activity which was focused on mobile bottling for wine estates. Based in Le Pouget, EVA is developing fixed-line bottling and is aimed in particular at the wine trade and cooperative wineries.

The 1,500 m2 warehouse was built in a few weeks, at the ZAC des Trois Fontaines, in Le Pouget. The building, erected behind the Vicomté d’Aumelas cellar, is a new wine-growing facility designed by Pierre Beauclair, head of the company Embouteillage Services (ES), a leading player in mobile wine packaging and on-property bottling in Occitanie.

With a fleet of around ten trucks equipped with on-board bottling lines, the company, founded by Jacques Beauclair in 2002, employs 80 people and represents a turnover of €11 million. With the creation of the EVA company, the Beauclair family diversified its activity towards bottling on a fixed structure located in Le Pouget.

A turnkey solution

“Bottling on the property is an argument for authenticity, quality, product security… For producers. We are pretty much the only business where we bring a high-performance plant to the production site”, appreciates Jacques Beauclair. And EVA will allow us to address another market and, thus, “to respond to all demands”, summarizes Pierre Beauclair and, in particular, those of the trade. The new structure is indeed able to store volumes of raw wine in vats, produce blends, ensure high-quality bottling, store production, and ensure logistics and administration.

“We offer a turnkey solution. Our customers only have the bulk wine to deliver to us. We take care of everything else”, explains the director. “It is totally complementary to what we have been doing up to now”, adds the founder of ES. “This responds to a different market typology. It is aimed at traders but also at properties that wish to promote a brand (without necessarily bottling in the production area) or at cooperative cellars that have markets in mass distribution…”, specifies Pierre Beauclair.

Cutting-edge equipment geared towards the future

EVA's production facilities enable the production and bottling of still and sparkling wines. (Up to 7,000 bottles per hour). The line can use different types of stoppers, including screw caps and even capsules. In addition, the processes of the new structure are also intended for to be able to orient production towards NO/Low, to translate as “alcohol-free” or with a “low alcohol content”, a segment that is growing. ” We have put a new process in place: very technological and very precise”, savors Pierre Beauclair.

In concrete terms, €6 million was invested in the new structure launched in 2022. Part of the site belonged to the winegrowers of the Vicomté d’Aumelas (who are keeping the old restaurant, the cellar and the offices located at the front of the plot). The industrial building (2,000 m2) which already included a bottling line, the winery; and the adjoining land (approximately 2 hectares) were acquired for the needs of the new structure.

“We changed the bottling line*, the labeling part… We redid almost everything except the 6,500 hectolitre cellar and the bulk reception, before packaging.” The new air-conditioned warehouse for storing finished products completes the project. Of course, the PAE des trois Fontaines will expand, but“Here, we have a land reserve of almost two hectares and the management of effluents already exists…”, Jacques Beauclair measures.

A bottling center with variable geometry

In terms of capacity, EVA can produce, at a minimum, 11 million bottles per year. Under its ownership, ES bottles the equivalent of 22 million bottles per year (taking into account packaging in wine-skin cases). Depending on the needs, ES resources could be transferred to production at Trois Fontaines.

In the event of a drop in mobile demand, “with the trucks, we can very well put one or two more units, next to (the fixed line). In total, we have eleven bottling lines. We can position them wherever we want. It's a variable geometry bottling center”, Jacques Beauclair says. Not to mention that the old Vicomté line could also be put back into service.

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