Welcome to the May edition of ‘bbb distilled’ newsletter. Looking back at April it was a really fantastic month for many reasons.
The on-trade is open again!
In April 2021 on-trade hospitality started to open back up across the UK. Variations exist between nations and there are restrictions in place still, but the light is most definitely shining brightly at the end of the tunnel. With Covid cases reducing week by week, it looks likely we’ll pass the steps necessary in the roadmap out of lockdown.
Indoor as well as outdoor hospitality will open back up in England on May the 17th, so we won’t be at the mercy of the weather to enjoy a pint or a cocktail.
It was great for our team to all meet up and visit some of our friends in trade during the month. The cocktails made with our very own Manly Spirits and Market Row were a highlight at Mimi’s in Soho.
Whilst we don’t have any figures yet on uptick in spirits sales in April, it’s clear that the British are back in the pub in greater numbers than had been predicted. There has been a shortage of beer as demand has far outweighed supply.
The Bank of England has just announced that they expect the economy to grow at its quickest pace since 1949. We’re sure the hospitality industry will be playing a big part in this. Cheers to that!
Propping Up The Bar
With our good friend Josh Linfitt from Propping Up The Bar we held a virtual training session for Inverroche involving 25 hand-picked bartenders from top cocktail bars from around the UK. We were joined virtually by the lovely Bo Saunders the Brand Ambassador for Inverroche in South Africa. Enthusiastically led by Josh, the participants were taken through the brand, each gin and some suggested cocktails.
It was great to see mixologists from Cornwall to Scotland really engaged by the brand story and Josh’s presenting style. The follow-ups have been impressive and we expect to see some listings in bars up and down the country off the back of it. A very effective way of telling people about a brand and something which we are looking to do more of even outside of lockdown.
New listings
Speaking of listings, we have seen a surge in interest in stocking our brands in both in the off trade and on trade. We have agreed cocktails going onto the menus in the world famous Gibson Bar, listing across Harbour Hotels, three brands in the Queen’s grocer Fortnum and Mason and Reserve Wines chain of off licences, to name but a few.
The ultra-premium, rather super, 44 N gin has been featured by our friends at the Craft Gin Club as their ‘Discovery Gin’ of the month. Read our blog about it here.
Our new integrated website and CRM system is already proving its worth with a flurry of incoming new stockists over the past few weeks, all working in conjunction with our social media team.
Gongs
Our brands seem to have been flooded with awards over the past month. Read the blogs Charlie has written for Market Row and who won what in The Gin Guide Awards 2021! It’s really amazing to see so many accolades for our hard working brand owners. We are sure that there’ll be many more over the coming years!
New arrivals
We’re not going to announce another three brands this month (as we did last month), but we are very proud to tell you that we will be working with VITA vodka in the UK market. VITA was launched in the UK around two years ago and in a post Covid Britain they are looking to bbb drinks to take them to the next level.
Made in Spain, it’s a vodka with a Mediterranean twist, designed to be served either with water or soda. VITA is very different from anything else we have in our portfolio and we are very excited about where we can take it as a brand.
Thanks again to all our brands and customers for all your support this month.