While once a titan of the drinks world and one of Dragons’ Den’s most notable success stories, this gin business is now facing collapse.
Founded in 2015 by business school friends Jon Hulme and John Burke, Craft Gin Club is a name most people will be familiar with.
The entrepreneurs had a mission to ‘reinvent’ how gin lovers experience the alcoholic beverage and certainly followed through with that, growing to become the biggest gin subscription service in the UK.
In 2016, they appeared on BBC show Dragons’ Den, where Sarah Willingham beat her fellow Dragons to secure a £75,000 stake in the company in exchange for a 12.5% share.
Fast forward a decade, however, and huge decisions must be made to secure the brand’s future.
Craft Gin Club sends members packages every month. They contain a surprise gin plus a full-size bottle, as well as various mixers, snacks, and ingredients. Each box is £47.
As reported by The Sunday Times, though, the firm could be undergoing a major restructuring to save cash.
Currently, the company is on the brink of administration due to drawn-out financial difficulties.
As a result, they’ve called in restructuring experts at Leonard Curtis with the hopes of having over £4million of debt wiped in return for 18.3% of shares in a debt-for-equity swap.
But if the plan is not signed off on by 75% of voting lenders, Craft Gin Club could be left with next to nothing.
The publication reports that Craft Gin Club has raised millions since its TV debut, growing steadily year on year to be worth almost £16m.
In 2019, for example, it raked in £1.5m thanks to offering investors a choice between traditional cash bonds with an 8% annual interest rate, or ‘gin bonds’, which entitled them to a certain number of free gin boxes each year.
They held a second funding round in 2022, raising a total of £3.2m, with £700k raised via an equity crowdfunding campaign the year after.
And while the pandemic was fatal for many businesses, profits were booming for Craft Gin Club, since lockdown led to more people shopping online and seeking out new subscription services.
Alas, what goes up must come down, and The Times states that, as of the latest accounts, its growth has become stagnant.
Over the year to January 31, 2025, its revenues fell by 17%. Co-founder Hulme blamed a ‘challenging macroeconomic climate and a maturing gin market’.
Furthermore, Craft Gin Club became embroiled in a two-year tax row over how VAT should be charged on their subscription boxes, which the friends called a ‘significant barrier’ to securing more funding from lenders.
After fighting back, though, Craft Gin Club won, having appealed against a whopping £5.2m bill from HMRC.
Still, the landscape isn’t what it once was, given that many Britons are scaling back their drinking post-Covid, which has, inevitably, impacted boozy businesses.
All of this is, of course, a far cry from the exciting times that lay ahead after their Dragons’ Den appearance.
While on the show, the duo delivered a successful pitch, with Touker Suleyman offering the £75,000 they were seeking, but for 35% of their company – they had originally hoped to only part with 3%.
From there, after some persuasion, Deborah Meaden made an offer for 10%, as did Peter Jones, before Willingham, who amassed her fortune with restaurant franchises, chipped in, asking for a 15% share.
In the end, clearly keen to emerge victorious, Willingham was reduced to 12.5% as one of four offers, leaving the pals to make a choice.
‘I am really excited. A lifetime in craft gin just opened up. I love it!’, Willingham told them.
‘We’re excited to have you!’, they added back.
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