Gin firm grew in confidence with big win
ARTISAN gin-making made a big splash at last year’s North East Cheshire Business Awards when Macclesfield-based Forest Gin won the award for Innovation and Design.
Ten months on Forest Gin, based in Sutton, is marking a year of success and development, and is urging other businesses to follow in their footsteps.
Karl Bond, who runs the business, puts his company’s success down to the drive to be innovative throughout the business, which is what made the award win so sweet.
He said: “Innovation is massively important to our business. The drinks market is so fast moving and it is vital that we keep innovating our products so that we don’t get left behind.
“We were always confident that Forest Gin tasted good enough to be a successful product, but our competitors have astronomical marketing budgets, so we needed to ensure that the design of our bottle was of the very highest standard to even stand a chance of competing with them.”
Karl said the award has benefited the brand.
He said: “The awards are a great way of showcasing your business and the evening is a fantastic event – made all the sweeter with a win.
“The award gave us great publicity in the local area, both via the press and word of mouth. It also gave us much more confidence in ourselves as a business.”
Since winning the award the company has seen a rise in overseas business, and has export Know your audience and their channel of choice gin to Germany and Switzerland.
Karl said: “Our biggest challenge is to give ourselves the opportunity to grow the business with a more suited to purpose environment while keeping the quality of product high.
“It’s a competitive market out there and we need to meet and grow demand.”
The North East Cheshire Business Awards celebrate the best in business across Macclesfield and East Cheshire, and take place for the sixth time in November.
This year there are 11 categories open to the region’s businesses, with entries welcome from all businesses regardless of size – you just have to get your nominations in before the deadline of September 30.
There are awards for businesses that go the extra mile for customers, such as Excellence in Customer Service, and those that show extra support for their staff, with Team of the Year and Apprentice of the Year.
Entry is free and forms are available via www. necb awards.co.uk.