Adding its name to the proud manufacturing heritage of the North East of England, Clearly Drinks has been making soft drinks in the area for over 135 years. In that time it has seen plenty of change, and has faced some similar challenges to others in the industry. However, through design and dedication, it has mitigated supply concerns, become as sustainable as possible and produced a strong talent pipeline.
Slightly west of Sunderland AFC’s Stadium of Light, further along the River Wear, you’ll find soft drinks manufacturer Clearly Drinks. The company has a range of own brands alongside a bottling and canning contract manufacturing service. It also offers a portfolio of packaging options including cans, PET and glass bottles in a variety of different formats. An immediately interesting and charming aspect of Clearly Drinks is that it uses Northumbrian spring water straight from source for all its drinks.
As in, quite literally, the water is taken from underneath the factory via boreholes. This forms the basis for a wide range of beverages including energy drinks, functional drinks, carbonates as well as pure spring and flavoured water. The business was established in 1885, and as mentioned, the industry has changed significantly in that time.
Sustainability has become of paramount importance to companies in the sector. As will be touched on in this article, that hasn’t always been the case, and as a smaller business, Clearly Drinks is open in the fact that it didn’t have an environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy as recently as five years ago. Nowadays, however, it has rapidly moved to the core of everything the company does. We also touch heavily on issues around supply chain resilience, which of course, has been an area of key concern for so many organisations.
And indeed, this continues to cause trepidation, although thankfully many businesses are now reporting slightly less volatility. As a business that sources 95% of its materials from UK suppliers, Clearly Drinks hasn’t been as damaged by the global supply issues of the last few years, when compared to other businesses. And lastly, skills and the search for talented engineers, shop floor workers, people proficient in digital systems and data analytics, is arguably manufacturing’s biggest current challenge.
This is made all the more intimidating for a smaller company working in a city that has to enter recruitment battles with the likes of Nissan. Not to mention the other industrial companies with a presence in Sunderland; the likes of Liebherr, Lear, Valeo and Johnson Controls, to name a handful. We often stress the importance of growing talent internally, and companies that don’t do this in competitive parts of the country could find themselves facing problems.
Significant work has been put into the apprenticeship programme at Clearly Drinks, as well as growing and upskilling existing members of staff. While these obstacles are challenging, Clearly Drinks has been able to navigate them successfully. The company recorded its best financial performance in 2023, and was on track to repeat that feat again when we spoke with them towards the end of 2024. This performance has led to the business being acquired recently by Supreme PLC.
Clearly Drinks put this down to becoming a well-trusted and established business within the drinks industry, that has been built up through the positive feedback that the business receives from the market. That has enabled new investment opportunities at Clearly Drinks, with the company stating it has some exciting projects on the horizon for the year ahead. To build on all of these aspects, and tell us more, we sat down with Susanne Wright, Marketing and Strategy Director, and Chris Johnson, Supply Chain Manager.
Tell us about the manufacturing process at Clearly Drinks
SW: Our manufacturing process begins with sourcing spring water from our on-site aquifer through the boreholes. The water undergoes a rigorous three-way filtration process to ensure purity and quality. Once filtered, the water is directed to the filling lines, where it is bottled in various formats, including PET, glass and cans. For our flavoured drinks, the syrup room is a key stage in the process, where recipes are prepared and integrated into the production line.
This approach ensures the highest standards of safety, taste and efficiency across all our products. The drinks industry has received some criticism when it comes to environmental practices. How has your company tried to change this? SW: We’re aware and understand the concerns surrounding environmental practices in the drinks industry, particularly around plastic usage and waste.
At Clearly Drinks, we’re committed to leading the way in being a driving force in the industry when it comes to sustainability. To reduce our reliance on plastic, we introduced an additional can line to expand the use of recyclable aluminium, alongside our existing offerings in glass and PET. All our bottles are made from 30% recycled PET (RPET), and we’re on track to increase this to 50% in our core range.
We’ve also implemented various light weighting initiatives across our packaging, significantly reducing plastic consumption. In 2023, we recycled over 664 tonnes of materials and maintained our long-term commitment to zero waste to landfill, something we’re really proud of. Our operations are powered by 100% renewable energy, and we’ve introduced carbon literacy training for our team, so everyone has the knowledge and tools to each play an active role in reducing emissions.
How has the company’s approach to sustainability changed over the years?
SW: As a manufacturer, we can openly admit that like many small businesses, we didn’t have a structured ESG plan in place five years ago. Since then, sustainability has become a core part of our business strategy and values. Over recent years, we’ve taken significant steps to integrate ESG principles across every aspect of our operations, from reducing waste and emissions to improving resource efficiency. Today, we have a clear roadmap toward achieving net zero by 2050, with interim targets to reduce Scope 1 and 3 emissions and maintain zero Scope 2 emissions.
Our journey over the past five years reflects our commitment to continuous improvement, demonstrating that while we may not have started with an ESG plan, we’re now fully invested in creating a sustainable future for our business, our soft drinks partners and the planet.
How has Clearly Drinks been impacted by global supply chain issues?
CJ: All manufacturing companies have had struggles in recent times. But we’ve actually been quite successful in mitigating a lot of those challenges. We were certainly impacted by the driver crisis post-COVID. We’ve also seen inflationary prices from our suppliers in recent years, because of other global issues. Thankfully, we were able to take action, and mitigate against this. We’re quite lucky – by design, our supply chain is built around 90% of UK suppliers – that’s either UK manufacturers or distributors.
As such, we haven’t really seen a significant impact. The risk is mainly being managed for us by our distributors. We’ve been able to maintain supply quite well. It’s been a challenging time for the whole supply chain team here, but we’ve been able to mitigate a lot of the significant issues by working closely with our supplier base and our customers. We run a tender process to drive cost down where we were seeing those inflationary prices.
We have passed on significant cost to our customers, however, those were never profiteering, they were always measured, and they were necessary to maintain supply. Overall, the result has been really good for us, and we’re stronger for it. Our relationships with our suppliers and our customers have really flourished. That’s because of the service we’ve been able to deliver and maintain. It has resulted in a successful period.
Are you confident in the current and future resilience of the company’s supply chain?
CJ: In terms of what we do and how our customers have reacted, we are probably surpassing what we were pre-pandemic. We’re growing very quickly and successfully. And we’ve developed a good reputation within the market as being reliable, agile and a great partner to work with.
Of course, no one can predict what’s around the corner. We’ve taken some measures to guard against this; we’ve broadened our supplier base, and we’ve looked at our dual sourcing strategies. We want to continuously improve when it comes to providing the best quality product to our customers.
We continue to build on those relationships, and we’re always looking at how to improve our processes within our supply chain. We’re a business that can be flexible and adapt really quickly. We’ve proven that time and time again, and our customers see that.
What digital systems are deployed at Clearly Drinks?
CJ: We currently use Sage as our primary source of managing our operational and supply processes. We have recently implemented a warehouse management software (WMS) system bolt-on to that, which can support us with our intake process and stock management across the site – this has been a real success.
It’s been one of the key pillars of 2024 for us, and something that we’re going to be leaning on. We’re constantly looking at what other technology is available to support us within our business. In that respect, nothing is off the table. We just want to take the next step.
Many manufacturers tell us that they’re concerned about attracting skills into their business. Has this been an issue for your company?
SW: Attracting skilled talent, particularly engineers, has been a challenge for us. We know that this is an issue shared across the industry, especially with the growing demand for expertise. To address this, we’ve focused on developing and nurturing our existing team, including through our well renowned apprenticeship programme, a strategy that has proven to be highly effective.
Our World Class Operator programme also plays a key role in training talent from the ground up. Designed to train and support the next generation of manufacturing talent, it provides team members with opportunities to enhance their skills and advance their careers. The programme kicks off with a two-week training plan that leads to an NVQ Level 2 in manufacturing operations. Participants can then take their development further by attending a local college to achieve an NVQ Level 3 in leadership.
We’re committed to supporting and empowering our frontline production teams to reach their full potential. This dedication not only strengthens our workforce here in the North East but also contributes to the growth of skilled manufacturing talent across the UK.
CJ: We obviously have challenges in different areas of the business. As mentioned, engineering skills are at a premium at the moment. The apprenticeship schemes that we’re entering into are a great way of enabling us to bring new people into the organisation, and, more recently, younger people, who are hungry to learn.
I think we also represent good opportunities for anyone, no matter what stage of their career. I’m still relatively new to this organisation – when I looked at the opportunity of coming here, I was really impressed by what the company could deliver. This is a company that is moving forward. I think the attraction is there – we’ve got a company that is able to teach and develop people.
It’s a really good place to learn new skills. That’s evidenced by our retention of staff. Within my supply chain team, I’ve got people that have been working for this company for nearly 30 years – people like it here. We’ve got a really good blend of experience and youth in our team, and that’s really good for me. That gives me a great opportunity to support the team, and to bring those skill sets up. In a previous organisation, one of the HR managers asked me what my ‘why?’ was. ‘Why do you do things?’ For me, it’s being able to bring people on board, develop them and see them flourish. That is my measure of success as a leader in this organisation.
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