A toast to season as gin-filled baubles sell in US

A SMALL Scottish distillery is exporting gin-filled baubles to America for the first time after securing a sevenfigure funding package from HSBC UK.

Pickering’s Gin is making increased numbers of gin baubles ahead of the holiday season in response to a significant rise in demand both domestically and overseas since the product’s launch in 2014, the firm said.

The funding has also enabled the Edinburghbased Summerhall Distillery to lease its first warehouse facility to store the additional baubles and employ eight seasonal staff, adding to its 19 full-time permanent employees.

In its first year, the firm sold a few hundred of its gin-filled Christmas baubles but an online surge two years later prompted a scale-up of production to more than one million baubles in 2017.

This year, the distillery has produced in the region of 1.2m baubles, all filled on site with specially designed machinery. Almost 500,000 have been shipped to the US and are now for sale across 23 states for the first time.

Matthew Gammell, co-founder, head distiller and head of production at Pickering’s Gin, said: “We launched our baubles as a festive, novelty product to sell over Christmas but never anticipated we would have such a positive response.”

Marcus Pickering, the firm’s co-founder and head of export, said: “HSBC UK has provided us with essential banking facilities that allow us to sustain growth as we respond to continually increasing demand.”

Susan Rowand, of HSBC UK in Scotland, said: “Marcus and Matthew run an impressive operation and know how to develop quality products that appeal to their customers.”