Brighton Gin: Winner – Business Pivot award

Brighton Gin was set up in 2013 by Kathy Caton and team and epitomises the spirit that defines Brighton: independent, fun-loving, open-minded, adventurous and ethically conscious.  Coming out of the city’s first ever distillery, Brighton Gin is also the UK’s first vegan certified gin (and that means not just the liquid and its ingredients but its packaging, bottle-sealing wax and glue for the labels too!).  Over its relatively short life Brighton Gin has won many awards, including being named as the UK’s Best Gin and winning multiple gold and silver medals.

From day one, the company’s emphasis has been on ethical and sustainable production, and making simply the best quality gin that they can.  Founder Kathy Caton says, “if there’s a choice between one way, and the better way, we’ve resolved always to take the better way.  For example, we use 100% organic wheat spirit as our base alcohol (all the better for dodging those hangovers with), use a UK-made bottle that’s made with a minimum of 85% recycled glass sourced from the South Coast area, and make local deliveries on our reclaimed Post Office bikes and our e-cargo bike”.

Every bottle of Brighton Gin is made genuinely by hand, a pebble’s throw from the beach, by a friends and family set up of six employees, with a 53-year age gap between the youngest and the oldest.  Jude, (founder Kathy’s Mum), is our Production Manager, waxing and labelling each bottle and with final sign-off to ensure that every bottle meets her exacting standards – no mean physical feat at 77.  Sustainability and inclusion are key pillars of the company, which is committed to supporting community events such as beach cleans, Pride and local charities such as the Rainbow Fund.

At the time the first lockdown came in, back in March 2020, and with it the closure of hospitality, an estimated 85% of the company’s business ceased overnight.  However, within the space of a week the company had pivoted to change their focus to sales via the website, with the team jumping on their Brighton Gin pushbikes to make direct doorstep deliveries to customers (all delivered following best-practice social distancing methods).

The biggest shift for the company – and certainly the one that was never in any business plan –  was to adapt operations virtually overnight to enable us to make and deliver the best quality hand sanitisers, made in collaboration with the Lewes-based AS Apothecary.  Kathy says, “an early decision was that these hand sanitisers would be not-for-profit, but rather we would set up a “spray (rather than pay) it forward” scheme.  Every hand sanitiser sold through the website has meant that two more have been donated to front line workers – everything from the NHS, care homes, food banks, to mental health workers and delivery drivers.  The response from our customers has been amazing, and I’m very proud to say that through their support we’ve been able to donate literally thousands of bottles of hand sanitiser.”

Kathy also says, “Huge, huge thank yous to every single person who has ordered gin, hand sanitiser, gift boxes or anything else through www.brightongin.com over the past year – not only have you kept us going but it’s been a privilege to be sending Brighton Gin all round the country as presents to people.  We may not yet be able to gather in person, but sending people a bit of the Spirit of Brighton is certainly helping raise some much-needed cheer!”.

The team were absolutely delighted to have received the Pivot Award – supporting and giving back to the local community has been one of Brighton Gin’s guiding principles since the start, and making and distributing the not-for-profit hand sanitiser has been another step on that path.  The Brighton Gin team are both proud and humbled to be recognised for this!  

Brighton Gin is available through many fine independents through Sussex such as Quaff Wines and Southdowns Cellars, through Waitrose and Marks and Spencer regionally, and shipping around the world via Master of Malt and The Whisky Exchange.  Gin, hand sanitiser and other goodies can be ordered directly from www.brightongin.com for next-day delivery nationwide.