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.
