A bottling business is on course to grow sales by 50 per cent after capitalising on the growing popularity of the spirits produced by craft distillers.
READ MORE: Historic Fife whisky business shows faith in future amid challenging times
Edinburgh-based Young Spirits expects to post sales of £1.2 million for the current year, compared with £0.8m last time after investing in increasing its capacity to meet demand.
The company has achieved rapid growth in spite of the challenges posed by the coronavirus crisis.
It was started in May last year to focus on craft producers of spirits ranging from whisky to gin.
While coronavirus lockdowns have hit sales of drinks in bars and restaurants, some distillers have been able to achieve strong growth in online sales.
The company recently moved to a larger base, in which it has installed an additional bottling line. This will be dedicated to handling miniatures and gift pack orders.
READ MORE: Craft distiller sees online sales surge amid coronavirus lockdown
Before some lockdown restrictions were eased, Young Spirits bottled hand sanitiser produced by a distillery, for the NHS and care homes.
Young Spirits has 19 people working for it currently.
It was founded by John Ferguson and Alex Harrison, who have backgrounds in the operations and drinks industries respectively.
Mr Ferguson said the company had identified a niche in the bottling market to offer shorter lead times to meet demand from the craft market.
“It has always been our aim to be able to turn around orders within a two-week lead time, however, we soon realised we were very quickly going to outgrow our original warehouse,” he said.
Having the capacity to bottle miniature and gift packs has helped the firm win business as the festive season approaches, and to broaden its client base.
The company offers services ranging from bottling and labelling to packaging and distribution and says it can help people establish their own spirits brands.
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