Welcome back to our Gin News Roundups! The weather’s not been much to write home about, but Gin Season is really about to hit top gear, so expect more and more new product launches – this time around we’ve got further evidence of the vast stacks of cash to be made from the ‘flavoured’ gin trend, plus news from Brewdog, Silent Pool and the latest Ryan Reynolds ad for Aviation Gin…
- Boë Brand Helps VC2 Recover From Stiffy’s Flop
Stirlingshire-based Boë Gin increased revenue to £8.5m between March 2018 and Feb 2019 from £1.1m the previous year, based entirely on growth of their flavoured gins.
The company’s products, which include Boë Passion and Boë Violet flavoured gins, plus Bramble, Peach & Hibiscus and Spiced Orange liqueurs, are rather more sophisticated than parent company’s VC2 Brands’ previous excursions into liqueur territory – Stiffy’s Shots, whose flavours included Kola Kubez [sic], Jaffa Cakes, Blak Liq and Deep Purple and were marketed with slogans including ‘R U Cummin’ In?’, ‘Do You Like Stiffys?’ and ‘Have You Had A Stiffy Tonight?’ [No, really, we’re not making this up – Ed.]
Stiffy’s Shots were censured by the Portman Group in 2004, again by the Vintner’s Federation of Ireland in 2007, and finally by The Portman Group again, who banned Stiffy’s liqueurs in 2011 (the brand was later renamed Stivy’s). Thankfully, it seems that VC2 have finally taken the hint…
- Silent Pool Dives Into Tesco
Surrey-based Silent Pool Distillers are celebrating after installing a new still and bottling line and securing a listing with Tesco. The new equipment has boosted the distillery’s capacity to 600,000 9L cases and the new listing will see exclusive 50cl bottles of the distillery’s flagship 24-botanical Silent Pool Gin retailing at £29 in Tesco after previous successful outings for the 70cl version at major retailers Waitrose and Majestic. Bravo!
- Brewdog Launch New Limoncello Gin
Lovable/punchable (delete as appropriate) hipster contrarians Brewdog [Full Disclosure – I own some of their shares] have launched a new Cloudy Lemon Gin under their LoneWolf brand. Brewdog recently took back control of LoneWolf’s on-trade sales from distributor Global Brands, and are clearly looking to cash in on the flavoured gin craze.
- Kopparberg Launch (Another) New Fruity Gin
Barely a month after their last launch, sickly cidermakers Kopparberg are back with another flavoured ‘gin’. They’re also doing a premix can, naturally. Sigh.
- And Finally…
Ryan Reynolds has done yet another brilliant new ad for his Aviation Gin, this time focusing on ‘Dedication’, which portrays Reynolds hand-blowing each bottle in what is fast becoming the company’s cod-earnest style. The ad’s payoff features a guest appearance from Fyre Festival hero Andy King. If you haven’t yet seen the brilliant Fyre documentary on Netflix, get on it. If you have already, or aren’t bothered about spoilers, you can read more about the new Aviation Gin ad here.
That’s it for this week’s Gin News Roundup, folks – have a splendid weekend!