Gin auction surpasses expectations to raise over £60k

Over 1,200 bottles of gin, more than 7,000 litres of tonic water and bar equipment were sold at auction on Monday, raising in excess of £60,000 from a total of 224 lots.

The gin, with brands including Tinker, Kuro, Aduro, Slingsby, Dingle, Santamania, Black Tomato Gin and PJ, went on sale at Eddisons CJM auctioneers in North Lincolnshire on Monday (13 August) evening.

It followed the collapse of event company Gin Festival Limited which fell into administration last month after failing to find a buyer.

Administrators Julian Pitts and Nick Reed of insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor sent the firm’s remaining assets to be auctioned.

As reported by the Grimsby Telegraph, the sale was a success, with over 1,200 people registered to attend the sale.

In total, the 224 lots, which also included mixers and strobe lighting, made a total of £60,000.

Paul Cooper, director of Eddisons CJM, told the Grimsby Telegraph: “It was very successful in terms of interest and produced a record for us of over 1,200 people registering to take part.

“Bearing in mind we only had 224 lots, some people may still be quite thirsty this morning.

“The sale total was just over £60,000. The gin had a retail value of £50,000 but we had some professional sound and lighting equipment achieving in excess of £2,000 per lot.

“It is fair to say that some of the more difficult to get varieties of gins were achieving pretty close to their retail value”.

Gin Festival Limited went into administration in July after efforts to find a buyer for the business failed, meaning that 20 shows, in locations including Norwich, Sandown, Worcester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Lincoln, Portsmouth, London, Wakefield, St Albans, Sheffield, Oxford, Edinburgh and Leicester, were cancelled.