The ultimate festive gifts: Gin-filled baubles and a business for sale

STOCKING-FILLERS: Gin-filled crackers, baubles, bottles and the business itself are all for sale

Chewing the Fat, out to lunch with Phil Ascough

This week’s guests: Emma & Simon Pownall of Hotham’s

Gin has had a hand in every special celebration I can remember. It was probably also the main influence in my failure to recall other occasions. But for so long it was only served with tonic.

Tipplers of a certain age will have experienced the unfussy, 1970s service of a single slug of gin and a bottle of tonic in a small, stubby glass. If you want ice in it that should be ready tomorrow. Don’t even think about asking for lemon.

How times have changed. A couple of gin sages – Emma and Simon Pownall – tell their customers that if you think you don’t like gin then it’s only because you haven’t found the right one. And yes, sage is just one of the popular accompaniments for gin.

The couple jumped onto the gin bandwagon in 2018 when they launched their Hotham’s brand. The motivation was not so much commercial as medical.

Simon said: “A few years before that I was diagnosed as being allergic to many things including yeast. The only things I could drink were champagne, which gives me a massive hangover, vodka and gin.”

As they approach the sixth anniversary they’ve announced the ultimate festive offer for the gin lover.

You can buy gin-filled Christmas baubles. Just top them up again for next year. There are different varieties of Hotham’s gin available by the bottle. You can even go big and buy the entire business.

“It was always part of the plan to build something up to the point where we could sell it on as a whole package,” said Simon.

The bundle includes all the stock and the paraphernalia to make it. There’s also the database of corporate and private customers, the results of research pointing to promising new projects such as artisan markets and booze festivals.

A CLASS APART: Deborah Spicer, director of the former 1884 Wine & Tapas Restaurant, visited the gin school in 2018 to receive one of Hotham’s first branded bottles from Emma in the gin school

Most importantly, there’s the training to deliver the arm of the business which sets it apart from the vast majority of other gin manufacturers and retailers. Hotham’s is first and foremost a gin school. You book in, head along to the distillery and learn how to make your very own gin.

Emma, an experienced English teacher, leads the classes. Simon applies the presentation skills from his career in business. They take you through the botanicals – the array of ingredients which you can choose from. Just sniff your way through the contents of the dozens of bottles and jars and consult the tasting wheel with its sensations ranging from herbal to hot, sweet to spicy, maybe via a bit of floral, nutty or zingy.

The tutors give you a steer on which flavours work well together. They show you how to operate your still, make your gin, put the wax seal on the stopper and apply the label. The hardest part is coming up with an appropriate name for your creation, but they ply you with gin throughout the process, and that helps.

My wife Jayne and I spent a Saturday afternoon there in 2019. We joined about half a dozen other couples at the original gin school in Hepworth’s Arcade, something of a goldfish bowl with its huge windows occasionally steaming up not from the stills but from curious passers-by pressing their faces against the glass.

SEAFARING SIP: Bottles of branded gin produced to support the Viola trawler campaign

We donned mortar boards for our gin school graduation picture and left with a scroll and our bottle of gin, labelled “Storyteller”. But don’t take my word for the fun of it, just look at the awards amassed over just a few years for the quality of the gin and more so for the enjoyment and novelty of making it.

“We have won three REYTAs and got a highly commended,” said Emma.

“We also got a silver in the Visit England New Tourism Business Awards and we are one of the top hospitality businesses in the UK based on our TripAdvsor reviews and three consecutive years based in the top ten per cent of hospitality businesses in the world.”

Locally, Hotham’s gin is sold in a variety of bars and restaurants. 1884 Wine and Tapas Bar commissioned their own label. The Viola Trust ordered two varieties to raise money and awareness as part of the campaign to bring the old trawler back to Hull.

One bottle was taken to the Falklands and hand-delivered by maritime historian Dr Robb Robinson, a Viola trustee, to the Commissioner for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. When the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce wanted a special gift for its patrons this Christmas, they went to Hotham’s.

Simon said: “We do a lot of corporate gifts and branded bottles – people like gin because it hangs around for a while, whereas wine is generally gone in a night.”

He’s right, to a point. I know someone who celebrated their 21st birthday by drinking 21 gin and tonics. I also recall a festive lunch for the Hull office of one of the world’s great newspapers which descended into farce, and at one point fear of fatality, when vast quantities of gin were washed down by champagne, brandy and some red wine or other.

The short version is that a semi-conscious senior newsman from the paper in question left the Bier Keller in Bishop Lane in an ambulance after collapsing in a cubicle in the gents’ loo. We marvelled at the creativity of the crew in freeing our colleague from the facilities and strapping him into a fold-away seat when a stretcher proved too cumbersome for navigating the tight steps and corridor. We were all relieved when the patient was sent home to Wakefield in a taxi after being diagnosed at HRI as just extremely drunk rather than at death’s door.

Meanwhile his boss fell into a hedge in Cottingham, was politely refused another drink after being retrieved from the foliage, and was sent home to Leeds in another taxi.

SCHOLARS: Jayne and Phil Ascough at their gin school graduation in 2019

The mastermind behind the marathon session was the shipping correspondent, who on another occasion used his contacts to organise a festive lunch in the “skippers’ room”, a once notorious drinking den upstairs in the Hull Cheese. Apart from the gin (and Stella – it’s said that at one point the Cheese had the highest sales of that in Europe), the highlight was the resurrection of a couple of nautical traditions.

Breaching the table was straightforward enough. You weren’t allowed to stop drinking until you had enough empty wine bottles to reach from one side to the other. The Cheese sold 1.5-litre bottles of something white and French which wouldn’t trouble a connoisseur but had the greater circumference which enabled us to finish that challenge in no time.

The other was the curious ritual whereby one seafarer would raise a glass, spy an old shipmate and slur: “Ah looks towards ye!”

And then came the response: “Ah catches yer eye!”

PRODUCE: Simon and marketing and communications manager Chloe Pellatt promoting Hotham’s products at this year’s Chamber Expo

Away games were particularly enjoyable. British Gas used to send an invitation to their Christmas lunch in the style of a final demand, insisting on your attendance and threatening all sorts of sanctions if you didn’t accept and participate in full.

British Rail would assemble regional and national media in the hotel next to York station, where guests would enjoy fine food and drink and an afternoon of blackjack and roulette, playing for points which were redeemed for free rail tickets. With a tombola as well, and an array of prizes donated from the stock of freebies which poured into newspaper offices during the year, it raised a huge amount for charity.

The most lucrative attraction was the giant bottle of whisky – I remember it being the height of a toddler – which sat in the centre of a circle set in an otherwise empty dining room. The challenge was simple. From behind the boundary, you would toss or roll a pound coin towards the bottle, which would be presented to whoever landed closest. That’s where the story ends. I have no idea who won or how they transported the bottle home. I do recall that some people tossed in so many coins it would have been cheaper to buy the bottle, but where’s the fun and the charity in that?

Such excesses in the newspaper industry, not to mention in what’s left of our nationalised industries, are less common in this modern age of health and wellbeing initiatives and of media barons who choose to amass huge profits rather than reward their hard-working staff.

“We have been looking at alcohol-free drinks,” said Simon, conscious that the business needs to move with the times.

One new product came from ideas suggested by gin school students, with rum being added just before the first lockdown. Vodka followed that, initially after an attempt to salvage a bad batch of gin.

“We did some cardamom gin that went wrong and didn’t taste right,” said Emma.

“So we did an experiment, got some oranges and distilled it and made vodka as a one off. Now we make it properly. Then we came up with our Bodka brand, then mango vodka during the summer.”

A Leeds outlet was launched days before that lockdown, and scrapped last year.

Simon said: “When we were in Hepworth’s Arcade we were sold out every Saturday with a three-month waiting list. We wanted bigger premises so we looked at places around Hull but couldn’t find anywhere suitable. We had also done some work plotting where our customers were from and it became obvious that that most were not from Hull.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: Dr Robb Robinson, right, delivering some of the Viola gin in 2019 to Nigel Phillips CBE, who at the time was Her Majesty’s Commissioner for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

“We decided to build a gin school, distillery and bar that we could show to potential franchisees and we did it in Leeds. We already had some people who were interested. All the money we had made and saved went into it and three days later the country closed down.”

Suddenly, Simon was working 18 hours a day just to cancel tickets and pay refunds. Online classes and cocktail sessions helped the business in Hull survive and then expand into twice the space in the 55 building on Whitefriargate. But other factors put paid to the Leeds project.

Simon said: “The electricity had gone up from £120 a month to £650 and that was with everything operating on timers. We got to the point where we were paying everybody else but not ourselves.”

The relocation was followed by the recruitment of an apprentice, Chloe Pellatt, who, in her role of marketing and communications canager, has been promoting the new products and the gin-making experience enjoyed by students who find themselves in a museum-like environment, surrounded by copper stills all named after celebrities with a strong Hull connection, including Sir Tom Courtenay, Reece Shearsmith, John Godber and Paul Heaton.

RESILIENT: The set-up for the virtual gin school during the Covid pandemic

Chloe has also played a part in the research to identify the future growth opportunities which should add to the appeal for the next owners of Hotham’s.

Simon said: “The business is attracting a lot of interest. In addition to all that stock, equipment, goodwill and training we know where the opportunities are that we have not yet capitalised on, the things we either don’t want to do or haven’t been able to do.

“We have struggled to find the time to tackle all the commercial opportunities including markets, which have a lot of potential. But we don’t really have the skill set and now we have other ideas we want to explore and work on, things we have identified over the last five years while we’ve been doing this.

“We’re halfway through a five-year lease which gives the buyer a decent amount of time to take things forward – they can continue in the way we have or they can bring in their own ideas and put their mark on it.”

Whichever direction they choose, a new owner would also be buying the opportunity to have a whole load of fun.

‘FIVE-STAR EXPERIENCE’: Simon and Emma Pownall

“I’ve run businesses elsewhere and what’s special about Hull is how the business community works together,” said Simon.

“There’s the Chamber, Hull BID and all the other people, independents in their own businesses, it becomes a support network. Everybody is there to help everybody else and I haven’t seen that in any other city.

“And this business is a great fit because it’s a lifestyle business. It’s fun. You are engaging with people and creating magical moments for them. People come in and they have a five-star experience, making memories that will last a lifetime and drinking our products as part of a celebration and a happy moment.

“Everybody said it would never work in Hull, but it worked extremely well with 5,000 people making amazing memories with us on a Saturday afternoon.”