WHEN Kathy Caton first came up with the idea of creating a gin brand, the beverage’s image was still a little dated. However, from a passion for gin and for Brighton, Brighton Gin has grown from strength to strength in a market now worth over £1 billion.

Since Kathy began working on the project in 2012, with the company’s creation in 2014, Brighton Gin has had awards success after awards success and even stepped in to make hand sanitiser at the start of the pandemic last year.

As she is set to mark a decade of experimentation and recipe creation with one of the nation’s favourite tipples, Kathy shares her story about surviving lockdown, sustainability and the staff that make the company what it is.

What was the inspiration for the brand?

It came from having a morning run along the seafront after having a very late night the night before drinking gin around a friend’s kitchen table. It occurred to me that if I’d been drinking anything other than gin, I wouldn’t have gotten off my sofa, let alone be going for a run.

It made me realise that gin is the one thing that lets you get away with it. Brighton, of course, is a place that needs to get away with it on a frequent basis - and then boom, that’s it! I’m going to make Brighton Gin.

I’ve always thought that the idea is the easy bit, it’s the doing it that’s the hard part. Ten years ago, I never would have thought I would be making a gin and exporting to a range of different countries and I love that we are helping spread the spirit of Brighton.

How did you go from that flash of inspiration to creating the product?

It’s really all about a lot of research. I’ve always drank gin and always loved it, even when it was very uncool. People used to laugh when I drank it, but I’ve always had a passion for it. I read and read and read, I experimented a lot and made lots of really undrinkable things and some near-misses. However, when things do go wrong, that’s when you learn something.

I immersed myself in it and, as time went on, I developed it bit by bit until I had a solid quality recipe.

For me, it has always been about making sure that it is the best quality of everything. For example, we use 100 per cent organic wheat as a base for the gin. We are always looking to take the better way - it may not be easier or any cheaper, but it’s always the right thing to do.

What goes into making the gin you produce?

Obviously there’s the gin itself, every drop of which is distilled. Everything is done by hand, from peeling the fruit, and we’re also the first craft gin to be certified as 100 per cent vegan, including the packaging itself.

It’s all about making sure we're making these better choices. For example, we have the bottles made by a UK glass manufacturer, which uses 85 per cent recycled glass. We hand label all the bottles and every bottle is finished in our Brighton seafront blue.

I love gin because I have the best time drinking a few gins with friends and I want to get the spirit of Brighton in that bottle and get that out into the world.

How important was having ethical and sustainable production as part of the company’s mantra?

We’ve actually done it naturally as we’ve gone along. It’s only recently as we’ve had an increased focus in recent years that we’ve realised how much of a core value it really is.

We minimise waste, we do all our local deliveries on our e-cargo bike - our equivalent of a company car, and we also don’t use single-use plastic; it took us a while to get there, but we’re really proud to have done it.

We also try our absolute darnedest to be ethically sourced. The bottle, for example, they’re based in Leeds, which doesn’t seem very local but if you compare it with shipping from China, it is. Our botanicals that we use we buy from a farm based just outside of Ringmer - so we really do try and support local.

It allows us to reflect the city that we’re in. People really are conscious about our impact on the world. You only have to go down to the beach in the summer and see the state it is left in to realise that all of us have a role to play.

We’re really passionate about it and I truly believe that none of us are too small to make a difference.

How do you make Brighton Gin continue to stand out in the growing gin market?

There’s now over 3,500 British brands and there are many brands out there that claim to be one thing but aren’t, but we are absolutely authentic.

We are made by hand by our team in the glorious city of Brighton and Hove. We have a real genuine passion about what we do and about taking the spirit of Brighton to the world in an ethical sustainable way, and about making sure every batch is completely delicious.

How did Brighton Gin get through the pandemic?

It was a truly terrifying time. We’ve had more than a few wonky times over the years but I never thought the thing that was nearly going to kill us off was a global pandemic. That was never on the risk list.

When hospitality closed, that closed off sales for us and I was worried the business wasn’t going to survive. I was worried about our team, as we are such a close-knit team.

There were shortages of food and drink on the shelves and people struggling to get hold of PPE, so one of the things we did early on was to try and be part of the solution while our business as we knew it was effectively at the time.

We partnered up with AS Apothecary based in Lewes that specialised in high-end skin care and we started making hand sanitiser as a not-for-profit thing. And all these months later, we are still doing it, and for every one that we have sold on our website, we have donated two to all sorts of places; from NHS frontline workers to food banks, delivery drivers - all to make a difference.

What can we expect from Brighton Gin in the coming months and years?

I’ve got a definite vision and view, but if we’ve learnt anything from the last two years is that we can have all these plans and something might just come along and change all that!

We have just released a new range of three ready-to-drink cans; with a gin and tonic with blood orange, raspberry crush and lemon verbena. Again, all of those have high-quality ingredients and they have been really nice to realise.

We have lots of big things in the pipeline, but I dare not tempt fate! I’m just so delighted that we’re still here and the business is still able to look to the future.

 

To see the process of gin-making in person, you can book tickets to Brighton Gin’s distillery and the company is taking part in a gin and chocolate tasting night on the i360 later this week.

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