Flavoured gin launches make Scottish brand Boë £8.5m

Colourful Scottish gin brand Boë’s sales have increased by more than £7 million thanks to a thirst for flavoured expressions and liqueurs, the company’s directors said.

Boë Gin’s directors Andrew Richardson and Carlo Valente (Photo: Boë Gin)

Results filed with Companies House this month show Boë Gin’s revenues reached £8.5 million between March 2018 and February 2019, up from £1.1 million the previous year.

The company said this meant it ended the financial year with an increase of more than £1.1 million on operating profits compared to the previous 12 months.

Stiffy’s Shots Ltd, the original name of the business that filed Boë’s annual results on Companies House, announced a turnover of £9.9 million and £1.25 million in pre-tax profits.

Stiffy’s Shots now trades as VC2 Brands, according to a member of staff at the company’s head offices in Stirling. It owns Boë Gin, as well as beer brand Black Wolf, and Stivy’s vodka liqueur.

It said that all of the growth in the last year filed under the company has come from Boë Gin.

Distillery director Carlo Valente said the rapid growth last year came as a result of the company focusing on producing liqueurs and flavoured gins that inject “vibrancy and colour” to an already crowded industry.

The company launched its first full strength, flavoured expression Boë Violet, at the tail-end of 2016. It initially gained listings in 276 Morrisons stores, adding a further 50 by October 2018. The Boë Gin range now totals six products; three gins comprising their classic Scottish Gin and two flavoured gins – Boë Passion and Boë Violet – plus three flavoured liqueurs; Peach and Hibiscus, Scottish Bramble and Spiced Orange.

“Knowing we were truly innovating and seeing the interest our products soar over the past year has led us to invest further in the business and hire more staff to support demand,” Valente said.

Sales of flavoured gin in the UK have contributed more than half of all the growth in the gin category in the past year, according to the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).

In September, the trade body reported that sales of UK gin have doubled in value in the past five years with exports and domestic sales totalling £2.2 billion in the year ending 16 June.

Almost three quarters of the growth in flavoured gin can be attributed to pink gin alone.