Bottlegreen Drinks has been sold to Northern Ireland’s SHS Group, the maker of WKD.

The soft drinks producer was previously controlled by Piper Private Equity. Piper paid around £5m for a majority stake in 2007 and reportedly valued the company at £30m.

Other drinks brands owned by Belfast-based SHS, which makes WKD via its Beverage Brands banner, include Merrydown cider and Shloer.

Bottlegreen MD Simon Speers said: “As a management team we are extremely proud  of the work we have done to grow Bottlegreen into such a successful business and a brand our customers love.

“The partnership with Piper has been excellent and throughout its investment the team have been incredibly supportive. I look forward to working with SHS to further build on the company’s brand success.”

Piper’s George Adams said: “When we invested in Bottlegreen we understood that we had an opportunity to work with an excellent management team to refresh the brand, broaden its distribution and extend the product range to take advantage of changing consumer tastes for more natural, healthy adult soft drinks.

“In doing so we have helped create an iconic brand that customers really value.”

Read more
Focus On Soft Drinks (30 April 2011)
Human Angle: Nick Clay, Bottlegreen Drinks (30 April 2011)
Bottlegreen plans export drive to hit £20m target (5 February 2011)