Wither’s Gin is a company built with passion and fuelled by family which is reflected in everything they do. Sarah Withers, the founder of the company, first had her love of gin sparked by her father bringing back exotic and high quality gins from all around the world due to his role as a fighter pilot. 

This quickly developed into enthusiasm with Sarah writing about; instagramming about; collecting and sampling different varieties of gins. Sarah’s collection of gin quickly grew to over 200 bottles and she grew an ample sized community of instagram followers.

When Sarah’s father fell ill with cancer, Sarah wanted to give back to the charities that had supported her family during that time, particularly Macmillan Cancer Support, and do it in a way that’s personal to her and her family. This started with selling gin glasses marked with the heartsease flower, a flower of remembrance, which now features on their signature gin bottle.

Turning a passion into an award winning craft

In 2018, Sarah decided to make her own gin with the help of Edward Gibson, former head distiller for Burleigh’s. During this process, she was able to share key development steps with her dad and he was able to taste the first versions and be a part of the design, outline plans and crafting the early ideas of the business. 

The business slowly developed over the following months until Wither’s Gin was able to release their first gin,  G1, in January 2020. Withers Gin gained lot of early success with the gin being awarded a gold outstanding medal by The International Wine and Spirits Competition, the brand’s first stockist being The American Bar at the Savoy in London and a further hat trick of notable award wins including winning ‘Best Gin in England’,’Best London Dry Gin’, and ‘Best Traditional Gin under 42%’ at The Gin Guide Awards 2021.

These achievements combined with the global pandemic dramatically changing the commercial industry meant that the business took a far different shape than Sarah or conventional wisdom would have expected. With Sarah also working full time, the traditional methods of face-to-face selling were impossible. This is where Sarah’s online presence provided a distinct advantage and interacting and engaging with that community helped develop a strong foundation for the company to build on.

Key to the success of the brand are the personal touches that add an extra touch of elegance and value to their products. Both of the current gins come in specially designed bottles to honour both of Sarah’s parents. G1 is in honour of Sarah’s mum and features a stylish version of a watercolour she painted of heartsease flowers. G Force is obviously a tribute to Sarah’s dad’s time in the Royal Air Force and features an image taken from his plane during a flypast to honour the 50th anniversaries of D-Day and VJ Day in 1994/1995. Both bottles have a clean, professional finish and feature a luxury glass stopper.

It’s that balance of having a high quality product that also feels welcoming and personal that reflects the brand well. Sarah is continually active on her social media, sharing cocktail ideas and telling the stories behind the brand and different gin products they sell while still prioritising the quality of the products she is creating. Keeping the brand approachable while still providing a luxury and high-end experience is something that really sets them apart from their competitors and has been a contributing factor to their early success.

A brand that is Social and Responsible

As a brand that was built partially to help give back, Withers are also keen to be as sustainable as possible. This means recycling and repurposing bottles as 100hr refillable soy candles, bottle lights, bud vases,  water decanters and most recently as terrariums, utilising creative cardboard packaging where ever possible. For their cocktail offerings, they use pouches to help reduce their carbon footprint and were working towards a closed loop system before sourcing newer versions that are fully recyclable. 70cl fully recyclable pouch bottle refills are in development as well as a refill station which will be up and running locally in the near future. Doing the right thing and providing sensible and convenient alternatives is something that defines the company’s principles and is a permanent agenda point to constantly strive to improve on and offer ever more eco-friendly solutions.

The business is defined by its commitment to donate to charity.10% of all profits are donated to cancer charities to honour her father’s memory and thank the charities for their tremendous support as well as provide much needed essential funding. This is something that Sarah will continue and expand upon in terms of support in the future. Charity is at the very heart of the business and it is there to stay.

Where next for Withers?

Looking towards the future, something that Sarah is passionate about expanding is her local presence, which she admits was hindered by the pandemic and getting the business off the ground while still working full time in another role. She has already gone some way to improving this outreach via attending in person events including gin festivals, corporate events, makers markets, farmers markets, craft fairs, food and gift fairs, networking events and local charity events and it’s something that she is having a great time doing. Getting out into the local community to events and building up local on trade and off trade stockists and getting to National trade events are still ‘work in progress’ and a heavy focus for her brand over the next 12 months.

Withers are in the process of investing and securing premises in order to move production to Derby to further strengthen the local and personal nature of their gin, this will coincide with an announcement about an exciting development in the near future! Being part of her community is just something that Sarah wants to encourage more of as the business continues to grow and expand at pace. She is also eager to expand her range of gins and other products with a multitude of new items on the way, including their first gin with an entirely new botanical.