Wine Industry

Being that a majority of our products are made from ‘by-product’ from the primary industry of wine cork stopper production, the wine industry is an important component in what we do. In total, there are between 13-15 billion cork stoppers produced worldwide every year, for use as bottle enclosures. This volume accounts for almost 70% of the total value of the cork market, despite wine corks being only about 15%, by weight, of all the products produced by cork. Domestically in the US, there is continual and steady growth (approx. 7% annually) with the use of natural corks, with the volume of use now exceeding 900 million a year.

Wine cork quality varies based on its age (the age of the tree from inception, and the age since the last harvesting), and ultimately the geographic area from which it is harvested (soil quality and micro-climate play a big role). Though there are a large number of places in the world where the cork oak grows, there is only a small swath of land, mainly in the Mediterranean, where cork of suitable quality, can be produced in suitable quantity for commercial use.