Bigger Picture!

Good morning!

Well, the plan for a pink gin in the sunshine went out the window, we will have to put that on hold until the sun comes back. It's definitely our fault, we are being punished with rain this morning. 

Yesterday was chaotic, but we achieved a lot so that's a good thing. When things ramp up they tend to be all or nothing and this week is certainly like that. In fact most weeks are like that, internet orders can go several days with very little happening and then boom you get a surge in them. The wholesale orders dry up for a while and then bam, you get a flurry of them all at once. The same applies to shows. This is where we have to be prepared, fortunately being small and how we operate means we can turn things around very quickly, despite producing such a large range of products. It's also one of the reasons why we will only sell products online which we have actually made and sit in stock. If we didn’t then when you receive a lot of orders on line it would create uncontrollable chaos at the shed in the fens. 

It's all these elements which make up the bigger picture of how the business operates, we often hear things like, you should do this, or you should do that. Many times they are good ideas however they are not always possible due to other things that are happening which not everybody sees. 

This bigger picture of what goes on includes everything, and you have to take into account every eventuality, the smallest things can derail what is going on. A current example of this is the small black caps that go on our miniature bottles are totally out of stock. People will say go elsewhere for them, we have three different suppliers for these caps and everyone is out of stock. They are produced in Italy and will not be in the country until late April. 

This meant that all the work we did creating an Easter layered shot had to be put on hold. Despite tasting amazing and we think it would have been very popular, we couldn’t release it for sale. We have an alternative cap which we can use for small amounts of miniatures but we would not have been able to cope with demand if we had launched the product. The end result would have been dissatisfied customers and would have created unmanageable stress in the shed. So the decision had to be made to not release it. At least we have it in our locker to bring out another time.

So today is the last day of the normal week whereby we have to have everything ready for a bonkers weekend. We are getting there and by mid afternoon we will be sorted. (hopefully!)

We then have another gin talk this evening, it's being held at Aldreth Village hall which is not too far away and we are really looking forward to it.

Tomorrow afternoon we will be having a meet the distiller thing at our shop in Hunstanton, between 1pm and 4pm. If you are local and would like to pop in to sample our products and have your questions answered, please come along, if the sun comes out the Pink Gin will be on ice! Probably ruined it now though..

Saturday and Sunday we have a stand at Holkham Easter Fair, that's usually a great event. Then Sunday and Monday we also have a stand at Kelmarsh Country Show. 

So a very busy weekend ahead but bring it on!

Next blog will be on Tuesday.

Have a wonderful Easter!

Off to a meeting….