A Cornish gin distillery is plotting expansion after bouncing back from a coronavirus crisis when it lost half its business.
Tarquin鈥檚 Cornish Gin is working on opening a new shop and gin school in the Cornish seaside port of Padstow. The Southwestern Distillery, based in the hamlet of St Ervan, three miles from Padstow, has also doubled credit times for its smallest customers to 60 days, scrapped minimum order quantities, and is providing 2,000, free, hand sanitiser stations for small retailers.
It is also diversifying into rum production, but the biggest change at the firm, named as one of Britain鈥檚 fastest growing before the coronavirus pandemic struck, is that it has received a huge boost from online sales. It had no online market before the pandemic lockdown forced founder Tarquin Leadbetter to reassess the business鈥 model.
He said the company lost half its business overnight when hospitality and leisure sector customers were forced to close from March 20. But he said the firm bounced back and said: 鈥淲e had never had an online shop before, but set that up and it鈥檚 been driving a significant part of our business.
鈥淚t has almost compensated for the loss of trade in the hospitality business. Gin has been one of the biggest online alcohol categories.鈥
He said one advantage of online selling was that sales did not have to be offered on credit. This payment certainty has allowed the business to be more flexible with its returning traditional customers.
When the lockdown was ordered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Tarquin鈥檚 furloughed about half of its 40-strong workforce under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Nearly all those staff have returned to work now, as the lockdown restrictions are eased and hospitality and tourism businesses are reopening.
Mr Leadbetter said job losses have been averted and he has even had to hire some temporary staff to send out individual bottles of gin as online sales boomed.
鈥淎 portion of online will continue,鈥 Mr Leadbetter said.鈥滲ut we now expect the reopening of shops and pubs to get us back in the swing of it. We are keen to encourage our traditional trade to bounce back.鈥
He added: 鈥淎nd we are now opening a new shop and gin school in Padstow. Right in the centre of the town.鈥
The distillery adapted its spirits production to make hand sanitiser in March, distributing a World Health Organisation recipe product 鈥 scented with gin botanicals juniper and orange - to the Cornwall community including the NHS, Devon and Cornwall Police, and local food banks.
鈥淎nd we are now setting up 2,000 hand sanitizer stations, to every shop we can see,鈥 Mr Leadbetter said. 鈥淭hey get two, free spray bottles and a refill pack.鈥
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The distillery is now diversifying into rum production with Twin Finm and a new gin designed to be served as a spritz, rather than with tonic, called Cornish Sunshine Blood Orange Gin.
鈥淲e have always wanted to make rum and this (lockdown period) has been an opportunity to get creative,鈥 Mr Leadbetter said. 鈥淚t came from long-term thinking, beyond the crisis. Something our sales team can sell alongside the gin, so we are less concentrated on one product.鈥
Tarquin鈥檚 was founded by Mr Leadbetter, a self-taught master distiller in 2012, as an independent, family-run distillery, championing traditional techniques alongside 鈥減rogressively modern approaches鈥. It uses four copper pot stills to create the gin.
Before the coronavirus crisis, Tarquin鈥檚 was experiencing phenomenal growth, being listed at number 29 in the 23annual Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 league table.
鈥淲e are built for growth,鈥 said Mr Leadbetter. 鈥淭he 29 th fastest growing company in the 海角视频. We expected to grow 20% to 30% year-on-year.
鈥淲e have not done that this year, but I鈥檓 an optimist and hopefully this will be just a blip.鈥
