Crealis CEO reshapes business for spirits growth
The CEO of closures producer Crealis, Enrico Bracesco, discusses the new business structure and why spirits have become a key focus.
Based in Italy, Bracesco joined Crealis Group as CEO in March last year, after previously holding leadership roles at Cimbali, a manufacturer of professional coffee equipment, and Technogym, which makes fitness equipment.
Last month, Crealis simplified its business structure to ensure its customers can order products across the portfolio from one place. The company makes caps and closures for spirits, wine, oil and vinegar.
The business has eight brands: Enoplastic, Sparflex, Le Muselet Valentin, Rivercap, Maverick, Pe.Di, Supercap and Corchomex.
Bracesco explains that some of these brands were acquired by Crealis over the years and the transformation puts them under one name, enabling customers to seamlessly order directly from a single local contact at the company rather than through each brand, which had previously operated separately.
This decision was made to provide simplicity and better service to customers, according to the CEO. “It was a deep reorganisation of all the operations of the group in order to integrate all the companies, to improve our lead times,” he says.
Now its key global accounts will be able to source Crealis products in different markets, like Mexico, France and Italy, where Crealis operates production sites. The company’s headquarters are located in Varese in northern Italy.
Bracesco expects the new structure to be at “full speed” and 100% fully operational by June.
One of the challenges with reorganising the business is coordinating with teams across numerous markets and time zones, he adds, noting that the business has 1,300 employees. “It was difficult to ensure that everyone across our 13 production plants through the world were sharing the same compelling principles and strategy.”
In addition, Crealis has identified two strategic growth drivers, spirits and sparkling wines, which have been split into separate divisions.
“Lead times are technically different and manufacturing is different for wine,” he says, before explaining some of the products that they make at the spirits facilities. “So we’re talking about polylaminate and aluminium foil for spirits. We’re talking about the synthetic bar tops and then natural cork, or bar tops, T-Bar closures. Also, there are some categories that are shared between the two [wine and spirits], like the thermal heat shrinking capsules.
“So we basically have the Mexican, Portuguese and Italian production plants dedicated to the spirits business. And then we have the French, Spanish, US, Australia and Italian plants dedicated to wines. They are very much separate. So the two business units are managed by two leaders.”
He adds that there is one central global commercial team that operates across the two business units to ensure a “seamless experience” for customers.
Crealis’ closure range for spirits includes T-Bar Lux, screw caps, screw bartops, T-Pourer, T-Bar, and Pedistrip (which feature tamper-proof seals).
There are three Crealis facilities for making spirits closures – located in Portugal, Mexico and Italy – and 10 dedicated to wine.
“The global output capacity for the spirits business is more than excess of one billion T-Bar closures per annum, and they’re evenly split across the three production plants,” Bracesco explains.
In Portugal, Crealis makes natural cork and develops its wooden T-Bar closures, while its site in Guadalajara, in Jalisco, Mexico, produces natural cork, micro agglomerate and synthetic closures. The site in Italy creates synthetic T-Bar closures.
With these multiple sites, Bracesco says the company can provide services across the world, from Europe to the Middle East and India.
Now more than one year into his role as CEO, Bracesco is hoping to expand the wine and spirits sides of the business.
Spirits ‘more resilient than wine’
He is hoping to tap into the spirits premiumisation trend and position Crealis as the “reference brand for global customers that looking for one point of contact”.
Bracesco believes the spirits industry has been “more resilient than wine” due to it being “more dynamic” and well placed to attract younger drinkers.
In terms of where Crealis is seeing demand for spirits solutions, the CEO highlights a “very good performance on Tequila” while whisky continues to grow primarily in the mid- to high-end part of the market.
He notes that Cognac has “suffered quite a lot due to the poor performance of China” and US tariffs, but he adds the “fundamentals” of the category remain positive and make it an attractive space for Crealis.
Bracesco has also seen demand for its premium products such as T-Bar Luxe, and more customisation requests.
Crealis invests between 6% and 8% of its annual revenue each year. This investment is put towards the development of new materials and technologies, as well as improving the sustainability of caps and closure solutions.
The company has noticed an increase in demand for sustainable closure solutions with “more attention” on low-impact products like PET thermal capsules and screwcaps and capsules from 100% aluminium.
Crealis is also working on a new development for spirits, a set of safety closures that are mainly for the Central American market, with the aim of launching at the end of this year or early 2027. In addition, the company plans to release more products that further reduce carbon footprint under the T-Bar closures line.
He adds: “We are going to expand the T-Bar Luxe range with new finishes using different materials to customise the heads of the T-Bar closures, providing a wide range of possibilities for our customers to look for customisation.”
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