Background

Whilst we have always had compliments on our label / packaging, it’s been our dream to develop our very own bottle. In the premium spirits market, 50% of sales are for gifting and as such, the vessel and packaging is paramount. Brands like Mermaid Gin have transformed their business by launching a new bottle.

Our new bottle. What was the brief?

1. To better communicate brand proposition using our butterfly effect metaphor 
2. To reinforce premium credentials – The Tesco buyer felt our liquid was so beautiful and premium and the bottle didn’t do it justice
3. To improve shelf presence & back-bar standout
4. To improve sustainability
5. To mitigate against glass supply issues

How is it more sustainable?

If this was only about sustainability, we would have created a bottle using the minimum amount of glass possible. But this would only tick point 4 of the above.

Answering the brief

By launching our new taller art deco bottle embossed/debossed with butterfly wings into the glass , we are

• inextricably linking the bottle to the brand,
• clearly reinforcing our proposition,
• Upping our premium credentials
• and improving standout

Looking at all element of the bottle with a sustainability lense

Manufacturer:  We selected Stoelzle, based in Lancashire,  as our manufacturing partner for the bottle, based on their sustainability credentials. In our opinion they are leading the way in carbon reduction and water management.

Labels : Paper made from recycled apple pulp (with a lovely link there for our apple gin)

Closure : Wood topped and natural cork

Designed for a second life / infinite re-use

We focused on using as little glass as possible within the constraints of the design brief above. And our bottle is below average weight for a premium 70cl spirits bottle. But we wanted to do more than that.

With only 50% of glass containers currently recycled in the drinks industry and 200,000 tonnes of glass going to landfill each year*, we turned our attention to re-use and second use.

As instructed by a little poem hidden on the bottle somewhere (we won’t say where…), when you remove the One Gin label after use, the bottle functions as a beautiful water carafe and begins a new life. We have debossed ‘WATER’ into the front of the bottle further reinforcing our brand purpose around clean water projects. There is no spirits bottle more appropriate to use as a water carafe.

industry – 200,000 tonnes of glass go to landfill every year.* 

This is tapping into a growing trend. We know that both the trade and consumers are increasingly turning to tap / filtered water;  premium spirits bottles are increasingly reused in hospitality as water carafes and sales of carafes and jugs in John Lewis & Partners were up 25% year to Sept 2021

Refill pouches will also be available at thespiritofone.com should you want to keep re-filling with gin, not water !

By Cecile Beaufils

Co-founder

Birthdays are always a good time to pause and reflect. The last five years building this brand have been such a roller coaster and whilst there have been a fair few tough, stressful days, the overwhelming feeling looking back is how exhilarating, fulfilling and plain fun it’s been so far. I say it to anyone who will hear this, but the best thing about this journey is the people (and particularly inspiring women) you meet along the way and the support you accumulate that make the rainy days OK in the end. 

I would do it all over again in a heartbeat (albeit with a few learnings second time around) and I can’t wait to see what the next five years hold in store.  

So, in no particular order, my top five moments so far…

1 The New one gin bottle

Seeing the new One Gin bottles come off the production line last week – To see blobs of fire turn into sculpted glass in a matter of seconds is simply mind boggling and gives us a new fascination for the complexity involved in producing such works of art. More on this very soon but thank you to our friends Paul and Sinead at SAINT, and the whole team at Stoelzle Glass for making this long standing dream turn into a very beautiful reality.

 

2 featuring on Saturday kitchen

Thanks to the wonderful Helen McGinn (@knackeredmother) for featuring us on BBC Saturday Kitchen, where Nish Kumar coined the phrase ‘BBC One Gin’ – perhaps one day! There’s something VERY exciting about being on TV…

 

3 creating our first limited edition

Turning a lockdown experiment into a much loved successful limited edition: our port barrel rested One Gin. Thanks Ian Spooner and Johnny Hunter – I know those weeks of tastings were tough on you. But I got my ‘pink’ gin in the end…

 

4 launching our sage & Apple gin with craft gin club

4. Raising £12k for The One Foundation with Craft Gin Club – whose members took a real shine to our second-born, Sage & Apple, and demonstrated great generosity by donating for our cause in the process. A perfect partnership in our eyes.

 

5 our first crowdfund

5. And a very recent one to finish…This week sees the end of our crowdfund round on Crowdcube – We have raised over £150k to launch a stunning new bottle and build out our sales team and we wanted to thank every single person who has invested and supported us. It means the world and we are so excited to be moving on the next chapter of The Spirit of One’s life from April …MORE SOON.