‘Our artisan beers showcase home-grown talent’

gill sherwin, 45, is married with one daughter. she lives in stafford and is the founder of Best of British Beer, a company selling British artisan and independent brewery beers.

✢ THE IDEA i was working as an operations manager for an insurance company. i loved it, but it involved a lot of travel and i wanted to slow down and enjoy life a bit more. my husband worked in the nightclub business, which involved unsocial hours, so we decided to take a redundancy opportunity and try to work together at our own business. the question was, what? We happened to be at a beer Festival in nantwich. my husband was passionate about different flavours and brewing methods. after chatting to various brewers, we realised there was a gap in the market for an online business selling these amazing beers you can’t find in the supermarket.

✢ WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

We visited lots of the brewers who said they would be delighted to supply us, then set about getting a website made. We also applied to sell on notonthehighstreet.com – we thought women might like to buy beers as gifts for Father’s Day, birthdays and christmas. it cost £700 to join, but it was worth it because it worked as a marketing tool as well as boosting sales. getting on QVc was fantastic for us, too – we sold £37,000 worth of beer in about 20 minutes. it was phenomenal!

✢ BREAKTHROUGH

MOMENT probably our very first Father’s Day in the second year of business. We weren’t really prepared for the rush of orders and it all went a bit bonkers the week before. but we made about £40,000 in three days.

✢ STEEPEST LEARNING CURVE We tried to diversify and develop a novelty hatbox full of wines as a christmas gift idea. it was a pain to package and didn’t sell well. We quickly abandoned it.

✢ WHERE I AM NOW We have a full-time staff of 10 with a turnover of £320,000. We sell in selfridges and Waitrose as well as from our own website. We’ve just opened a bar and shop too – the online business is brilliant but it’s great to have bricks and mortar.

BUSINESS IN FIGURES start-up costs: £1,500 Comprising…

Licence: £150

Website: £500 stock: £400

Postage and packing: £50 sundries: £400

Current turnover: £1.2 million Website: bestofbritishbeer.co.uk