Walpole: Tell us about the history of your brand…
Tom Cotton and Dina Jahina: The eto story began in 2012, when Tom challenged himself to find a way to reduce wine waste and improve the drinking experience for wine enthusiasts who want to savour their wine over several days. As a product designer with a passion for form, Tom also wanted to create something that would add to the aesthetic of a contemporary dining table.
The premise was simple: prevent the wine oxidising by creating a pure seal. But inventing the perfect solution was more challenging. During development, Tom built more than 60 functioning prototypes in an effort to perfect the eto preservation system. And five years on, he succeeded. The result is an award-winning sleek and simple decanter with a unique and highly effective preservation system hidden inside.
The name eto is a nod to Tom’s Welsh roots. Eto means ‘again’ in Welsh, which perfectly sums up eto’s purpose – being able to enjoy a great bottle of wine, again and again.
What is your brand best known for?
We imagine eto is best known for its commitment to the principles of purposeful and innovative design. The clean aesthetic of the eto decanter emphasises our love of beautiful things. And our patented preservation system lets eto customers enjoy wine on their own time, a freedom which brings lots of opportunity for trying new wines, or sticking to established favourites. The eto community rewards us for this new freedom by being active and supportive, and we love introducing them to enthusiasts and experts who are passionate about our three pillars of interest: wine, design and sustainability.
What has been a significant achievement in your company’s timeline?
The instant and overwhelming global success of our Kickstarter campaign in 2017 was an incredible achievement. We always wanted to build an eto community, so we decided to run a Kickstarter campaign to raise both awareness and funds. But we could never have imagined how successful the campaign would be. In less than 32 hours, we had hit our funding target and by the end of the campaign we had earned the trust of almost twenty thousand Kickstarter investors from across the globe. This gave us a great platform to build a likeminded community on, and we now have a truly international loyal and enthusiastic following.
Why do you love the brand?
We love the clear purpose of the eto brand. We champion three pillars at eto – wine, design and sustainability – and these are seeded into everything we do. Our preservation system gives our customers the opportunity to enjoy wine at their own pace. Every aspect of eto’s design is worked on until it's perfect – from its preservation technique to its elegance, usability and durability. And by helping people preserve their wine, we are reducing wine waste and supporting sustainability too. We also love the amazing feedback we get from our customers. We always wanted to be a brand in constant dialogue with our community, and this has proved to be one of the aspects I love most about eto.
Why does your brand represent the very best in British luxury?
We always wanted to create the best eto we possibly could. While that took time, we never considered compromising. The eto ethos has always been ‘reduce to perfect’ and we apply this thinking to every aspect of our brand – from its preservation system to the way we package each new eto. Detailed precision is a constant ambition at eto to ensure our products perform exceptionally over a lifetime. It is this dedication to quality and innovation that epitomises how eto represents British luxury.
What attracted you to becoming a Walpole member?
Walpole promotes, protects and develops British luxury around the world which is invaluable to our brand as eto continues to enter new markets. From networking with like-minded brands to developing closer collaborations, Walpole has opened the door for eto to some excellent opportunities. Walpole has also enabled us to delve into the research and knowledge of Walpole members who are doing great things within sustainability.
If you could collaborate with another Walpole member, which one would you choose (and what would you like to do)?
We would love to collaborate with other Walpole members as we feel we share many of the same values and ambitions. We have a number of exciting projects in development at the moment around our three core areas of design, wine and reducing wine waste. If this sounds interesting to any Walpole member, we’d love to get together and discuss it over a glass of wine.
Tell us about an exciting development or new launch for your brand in the coming months?
We recently launched our new limited-edition graphite steel finish. From the outset, we’ve always wanted to introduce a contemporary black eto to the collection, and this was strengthened more recently by our community asking for a new darker finish. But as design plays such an important role in the eto story, we needed to carefully test and assess how this new finish should look. The Graphite finish incorporates a new technique which creates a beautifully smooth, dark finish, while also sustaining the level of quality we are recognised for.
