A Newcastle based, premium alcohol gifting business is aiming to double the million pound turnover it has achieved in its very first year and create more than a dozen new jobs after moving into larger new premises.
The Gin & Rum Warehouse began trading in March last year as a bottle delivery business in Gosforth and quickly added personalised gift sets to its product offering. It now offers a comprehensive range of leading gins, rums and vodkas, as well as a growing number of smaller boutique and emerging British brands, and has so far sent out around 25,000 gift sets to customers right across the UK. Having initially taken a small warehouse in Newcastle to manage growing demand, the Gin & Rum Warehouse is now trading up to a new 7,000 sq ft facility on the New York Industrial Estate in North Tyneside to ensure it has the space it needs to keep growing. Up to 14 new jobs are expected to be created over the next few months as the business scales up in advance of the busy Christmas season, which will take its total workforce to 22, and it is also set to launch on the UK’s leading platform for independent retailers, Not On The High Street. Stephen Slater of RMT Accountants & Business Advisors and Paul Holborow of RMT Technology are working with the Gin & Rum Warehouse’s management team on all aspects of the business’s development, including its expanding technical infrastructure. Plans are currently being put in place for a new wholesale gifting business which will supply products directly to garden centres and other retailers, while a range of new products are also being considered. Matthew Patterson, managing director at The Gin & Rum Warehouse says: “We work with innovative brands that regularly put out new flavours and variants, which creates continuing customer interest and demand, while our gift set collections are unique and exclusive to us. “Excellent design is also extremely important in catching the eye of consumers in a market where the choice is almost endless, and the progress we’ve made so far suggests we’re making the right choices. “We’ll be building up the team over the summer to ensure we’re ready for our second festive season and now have the space we need to keep growing the business and meeting customer demand. “We’ve also got lots of ideas for new product lines, as well as wholesale and retail offerings, and want to be hitting the £2m turnover mark by this time next year. “The RMT team is helping to ensure that our financial and technical infrastructure is robust enough to manage the growth that we’re expecting next year and beyond, and having their expertise on hand is already delivering tangible benefits to our business performance.” Stephen Slater, director of commercial services at RMT Accountants, adds: “The Gin & Rum Warehouse has had a phenomenal first year in business, but it’s really just the beginning for them and we’re excited to be part of delivering their growth strategy.
