The Story Behind The Shropshire Distillery Brand
The Shropshire Distillery, as you know it today, is a purpose-built business with family at the heart of everything we offer from; delicious spirits, merchandise, and our much loved interactive experiences.
It’s taken lot of hard work, effort and (sometimes difficult) decision-making to expand the distillery from our original ‘Gin Shed’, the place where this all first began – but we sure have done it!
Fill up your glass or grab a brew and take a trip down memory lane as look we back on where our branding started and how we got to where it is today…
The Start of The Shropshire Distillery
For those that aren’t already familiar with our story, our gin journey first began four years after our arrival in Shropshire.
Driven by a desire to create a business that fitted in with family life and fuelled by the disappointment of a ‘locally’ produced gin (which wasn’t so local after all) our back garden became home to ‘the ‘Gin Shed.’ 
In July 2018 we launched our first gin under our original product name, “Shire Gin.” Using our traditional copper pot still distillation methods, we set out to create a delicious product with a real personal touch.
Shire Gin was a success and was soon followed by our Spiced Gin and later, Cherry Gin. Not only were our customers happy but so where leading gin experts and judges of the IWSC, as we became official award-winners.
For half a century the IWSC has been recognising and awarding the very best wines and spirits all over the world, and our Shire Gin and Spiced Gin won not one, but two of those prestigious awards that same year.
Thrilled with our success and recognition, we were excited to continue working and exploring new flavours for our customers to enjoy. We introduced our Navy Strength Gin the following year and seven months later moved into our new distillery, which we proudly call home.
By 2021 all 4 of our core range gins where multi award winning, which for us was a great and wonderful acheivment that we felt very proud of.
The Need For Change
While we continued to receive positive reviews from our products, there was one thing we noticed from our consumer feedback.
Our branding as Shire Gin wasn’t so easily understood and we realised that perhaps our story (which we were proud of sharing) wasn’t getting across, especially just from looking at our bottles on the shelf. We used the Ironbridge as a Shropshire landmark and combined with the Lancashire Rose - thus giving reference to where we are from as a family to where we were now living.
As I’ve mentioned, beginning this journey was about so much more than just sales for us. We wanted to build a successful family business that we are proud of and I have always gone to great lengths to be actively involved in every process.
Whether it’s bottling, waxing, distilling or labelling, I’m passionate about making products that are handmade by my family with love. So to hear that perhaps the meaning of our business wasn’t understood, I knew we had to make changes, and to further strengthen our brand and business.
In October 2021, we officially began our re-brand to The Shropshire Distillery: The Small Batch Spirit of Shropshire.
While we had always been The Shropshire Distillery, it had been a far less focal point of our branding. The new changes involved emphasising this to show our consumers our ethos, alongside the purity and clarity of our spirits which is reflected within our packaging.
To expand upon our value of locality, we opted to work with a Shropshire based Designer to create our new branding along with a very local illustrator who produced our much loved botanical designs aiding to the classic looking bottle, as well as choosing bottles that are sourced closer to home too.
Adding to the authenticity of our ‘locally produced’ description, these changes were also made with the consideration of sustainability.
We reduced our carbon footprint, removed plastic from our packaging and opted for a natural cork stopper and recycled un-coated paper.
Exciting and environmentally friendly!
The Shropshire Distillery Today
Our decision to re-brand was not only the right decision for us but our customers.
Since the changes, we have had such positive feedback and now have a far clearer story to show our consumers which they love hearing! (It really is amazing the impact even the smaller details can have)
This decision for change also gave us the opportunity to continue developing as a brand and we have been able to welcome even more experiences to our Distillery.
Already able to offer our Gin School where guests can experience the life of a Distiller first-hand, and our Gin Tasting, Tour & Talk Experience where you can gain a real insight into our history. We have for 2023, introduced our Cocktail Masterclasses, which are now available to book for our fellow cocktail lovers, enabling you to learn how to become a cocktail connoisseur and impress everyone with your mixing skills!
We are so proud of our business and being able to show off our brand as it is today is more rewarding than I can ever explain.
If you’re ready to be apart of our story and want a taste of our handcrafted spirits, you can purchase them online here. If you want to experience the distillery first hand then we invite you to attend our Gin Tour, Gin Making School and Cocktail Masterclasses by booking here .
