Fortitude Spirits Group Goes Live with Canning, Becoming a Complete Adult Beverage Company
Kliro Capital Partners is pleased to announce that Fortitude Spirits Group has gone live with a canning line at ICB Distillers’ production facility in Middlesbrough. With bottling and canning now under one roof, Fortitude becomes a complete adult beverage company, able to produce spirits, ready-to-drink cocktails and alcohol-free drinks in both glass and can.
The new line fills up to 16,000 cans an hour and has its own pasteuriser, so it can run alcohol-free and lower-strength drinks as well as full-strength ready-to-drinks. It opens the canned drinks market to the Group’s own brands and to brand owners looking for canning capacity in the UK.
A Fast-Growing Market
Ready-to-drink (RTD) cans are one of the fastest-growing parts of the UK drinks market, and shoppers are moving to them from traditional spirits:
- UK off-trade RTD sales rose 17% in value and 12% in volume in 2025, to £704 million.
- 44% of that spend came from shoppers switching from spirits.
- Canned cocktails grew from £4.7 million in 2014 to £94 million in 2024 in the UK off-trade.
- Worldwide, IWSR forecasts that volumes of RTD cocktails and long drinks will roughly double between 2019 and 2029.
Alcohol-free and lower-alcohol drinks are growing alongside them. IWSR forecasts UK no-alcohol volumes to grow by 7% a year between 2024 and 2028, and the British Beer & Pub Association expected 2025 to be a record year for no- and low-alcohol beer, at around 200 million pints.
Why Cans
Cans are light, chill quickly and protect their contents from light and air, and aluminium can be recycled again and again. They suit the way people now drink: single serves for moderation, drinks on the go, and outdoor events where glass is not allowed.
A Complete Adult Beverage Company
Since its launch in October 2024, Fortitude Spirits Group has built a business across production, brands and distribution. Canning extends each of its three divisions:
- Fortitude Spirits can develop canned serves of its brands, alongside the bottle.
- Fortitude Drinks UK can take canned drinks to its customers across all UK channels.
- ICB Distillers can now offer bottling and canning from one site, for the Group’s own brands as well as private label and third-party products.
Kliro Capital’s Continued Support
Kliro Capital remains committed to Fortitude Spirits Group’s growth strategy and its ambition to become one of the leading independent UK drinks companies. Canning is the next step in building the Group’s production capabilities, following the £2.5 million investment Kliro supported to expand ICB’s production capabilities and capacity.
Sources: UK RTD sales and switching from spirits, NIQ data for the 52 weeks to 27 December 2025, in the WSTA’s Sip 2 report; canned cocktails, NIQ data via Global Brands; RTD cocktail forecast, IWSR Global Trends Report 2025; UK no-alcohol forecast, IWSR; no- and low-alcohol beer, British Beer & Pub Association.