At 4.30 pm on Saturday 15 October 2005, Tony Sharpe, MD of gin and vodka distiller G&J Greenall, received a phone call from his operations director informing him that the company's sole plant in Warrington was on fire. There were only two options as the fire spread - save some of the vast production buildings but potentially lose the distillery, or focus all resources on saving the distillery. "In the end it was a pretty simple decision to make, says Sharpe. "I said save the distillery because it is the heart of the business." The fire, one of the biggest in Cheshire's history, is believed to have been started deliberately. It took 110 firemen three days to put it out, during which time the 12-acre plant was almost completely gutted and more than 6.5 million bottles of product were destroyed. Sharpe calmly tells me all this as we sit in his office which, along with the distillery and a small warehouse containing its temporary bottling lines, are the only buildings that remain. On the wall behind him is an aerial view of the site before the fire, which bears little resemblance to the vast empty yard he now sees through his office window. But all this is about to change. G&J Greenall is gearing up to move to a facility five miles down the road in Risley. A major part of its warehousing facility will move to the new plant by the end of this month and the entire business will have relocated by April next year.The company is investing £20m at the seven-acre site that will house two new bottling lines and two brand new distilleries. This will use the original stills saved from the fire, some of which date back to 1831. Even though the new plant is smaller, the company is giving more space over to production than warehousing, doubling capacity and allowing for future expansion. At the time of the fire the plant was producing the Greenall's gin brand, the second-largest in the UK, supplying 70% of the UK's own-label gin and vodka and producing the third-largest gin brand, Bombay Sapphire, for Bacardi. To compound the problems it was also peak time for the industry, which was starting to ramp up production for Christmas. "All our materials were destroyed. We were basically starting from zero," says Sharpe. "We had to rebuild the business as quickly as possible and find people who could bottle for us." Remarkably, this was easier than the company expected. While the fire was still raging, five companies, including Halewood International, had offered support. Within seven days of the fire being extinguished, G&J Greenall had restarted distilling at the site and within two weeks it had outsourced all its bottling - a hefty 45 million litres a year. "The immense support we received from the industry was incredible," says Sharpe. "The fire was a real wake-up call for many mid-size companies in our industry because no one thought something of this magnitude could happen to them. In other industries competitors would say 'thanks a lot' and take our business, but they didn't. If we hadn't had that help we could not have dealt with the situation at the speed we did." After a year, the company was able to bottle on site once more, and this coincided with a takeover by the Alternative Hotel Group, which owns Liberty department store in London and the De Vere Group of hotels, including Malmaison hotels and Hotel Du Vin. This boosted the recovery, offering the brand entry into top-end hotels, and set the ball rolling for growth opportunities. It now intends to build on this position with new packaging for its Greenall's gin brand to be unveiled in October with an enhanced steel cap design, more modern typeface and embossed signature. It will be backed by a £750,000 marketing spend. The company is also looking to introduce new premium gin variants with different flavour profiles to suit a more diverse range of drinkers and a move into the wider spirits market with premium vodkas, both branded and own label. "There's been explosive growth in white spirit drinkers over the past 20 years, driven by vodka, but those consumers age and look for a different spirit," says Sharpe. "There is an opportunity to move drinkers from premium vodka to gin. Vodka has evolved with new flavours but they tend to be a one-style flavour, such as berry. Gin is a category where we can be a lot more creative. We have identified more than 65 botanicals that can be added to gin to create significantly different taste profiles. We are likely to see more gin brands come in the next 18 months than in the past 20 years." Greenall's will also explore branded vodka and tequila opportunities although Sharpe admits it's harder to create differentiation here. "In the past four years 240 vodka brands were launched in the US. Everyone's chasing the same opportunity. It's about being smart." The company will also move more widely into the on-trade and expand its export business. Next month it is entering the US with gin and tonic cans and forecasts it will sell 25,000 cases in the first year. Alongside brand building, the future will also be greener. Sharpe says the company is slightly restricted because it is moving into an existing property rather than building one from scratch but he won't miss the opportunity to use the new start to address environmental issues. It has already started to shrink-wrap 12 bottles together to cut down on waste and is investigating the use of lightweight bottles. "While the fire has been an immense challenge it has provided us with an opportunity to build a business that can be more efficient and address key future and energy concerns that we would never have had if we had continued in our old business. We don't want to let these opportunities drift by. The fire has, in fact, galvanised us."

Topics