2019 marked the launch of Kin Spirits, with the early part of the year focusing on the creation of gins, experimentation with different ingredients and flavours and planning to launch the business to the market.
In late 2019 we secured our first customers, we'd decided to limit the number of customers in 2019 to 5. Our thinking was that we wanted to make sure that any wrinkles in our production process were ironed out and that all of our administration was streamlined before gearing up for growth.
The launch went very well and we received orders from quite a wide range of customers and business was brisk. We identified a number of ways we could improve our production process which will save a great deal of time and effort later. In short our initial taste of the gin business was a great experience.
One of our biggest areas of learning has been the way we approach our potential customers. We learned very early on, that the idea of creating a signature gin is something which appealed greatly to our customers. All of the customers we worked with were happy with our recipe recommendations and moved very quickly to production. However, there were a few that got away, essentially because it was difficult to choose which signature gin might suit their customers without involving those customers in the selection process.
During the month of December the timing wasn't quite right to get them involved. However, as the New Year is now in full swing we've been developing a proposal to overcome this problem. It's quite simple really, we now develop 5 gin options typically ranging from a classic gin suited to be served as a straightforward gin and tonic, cycling through contemporary gins some of which are made for specific cocktails, and then onto a flavoured gin and finally a sweetened gin.
These gin tasting events are already proving to be really popular. The original idea of using them engage customers in the selection of a signature gin has been welcomed. So to is the idea to use a gin tasting as a fund raising evening. This generally involves an evening of gin tasting, followed by the sale of the chosen signature gin on behalf of the fundraiser to generate even more donations. The evenings are also proving to be a popular way a celebrating major occasions, sometimes organisational landmarks and sometimes personal.
Watch this space for news of upcoming events, or get in touch to organise your event!