The celebrations are set to run beyond the King’s Coronation for natural cordials and sparkling drinks maker Belvoir Farm with exports on a high and boosted by sales of its limited-edition royal occasion bottles.
Featuring Belvoir’s signature elderflower flavour, the “happy and glorious” bunting and crown decked bottles (from £3.25) are being sold in major UK retailers as well as all year in Japan – a thriving international market for the family firm.
With a selection of more than 30 premium soft drinks generating a £20 million turnover produced by a 120-strong team, the Leicestershire-based company started by John and Mary Manners has come a long way from its no-waste “pick your own” fruit roots 40 years ago.
The area’s chalky soils produce an abundance of aromatic elderflowers and May is also the moment for hand-picking the quintessentially British blossoms that are produced and bottled on-site.
“We make to our traditional family recipe and harvesting involves the whole community.
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We’re very much a celebration brand, we taste wildly better, offering organic choices too and our story has captured imaginations both at home and abroad,” says second-generation managing director Pev Manners.
Belvoir’s exports, which include another super seller ginger cordial are seeing a 24 percent year-on-year growth to the USA, Australia, Japan and Europe’s Benelux region and its most recent push is into China and South Korea.
Manners welcomes news that the UK is to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade area of 11 countries and over 500 million people spanning the Indo-Pacific.
“There are huge trade opportunities now,” he says. “The CPTPP agreement will enable UK brands to diversify their commitment and drive growth and employment.”
The drinks side of the business works closely with its sister enterprise Belvoir Farming on the 2,800-acre estate, together sharing a common, nature-first ethos where protecting the countryside is balanced alongside effective food production, bringing together sustainable, profitable modern farming and natural habitat conservation.
And for those beer drinkers who may think elderflower cordial or fizz is not for them, Belvoir recommends: “For a cooling pint, try a floral dash on top, it’s a local tradition”.
