Brothers Make Almost £50,000 After Launching Gin Company In Lockdown

When 23-year-old Gus Derry lost his dream job as a motorsport engineer last July, he had no idea it would prove to be a blessing in disguise.

Looking to the future over a few G&Ts at the boozer with older brothers Jake and Max, an idea formed.

"Max said, 'Why don't we just make our own gin?'. Then he said, 'And why don't we call it Bucks Brothers?'," Jake told LADbible.

"The name just came to him. We all loved it and that's when our business was born."

Bucks Brothers

Of course, countless Earth-shatteringly brilliant concepts have been conceived in the pub, only to evaporate entirely once sobriety is restored. But the Derry boys from Buckinghamshire actually followed through with the idea, with Max quitting his mortgager advisor job and Jake packing in as a bricklayer.

The company launched in October, and within eight weeks they had sold more than 1,500 bottles of their very own gin.

Max said: "We have been blown away by the support. We initially anticipated that friends and family would buy, and then demand would start to drop off - but we were wrong.

"First the online gin community started to take notice, then we started to hear from pubs and shops who were interested in selling it."

Bucks Brothers

The brothers have now turned over around £46,000 ($33,611) and are continuing to expand their offering - with a 58 percent 'Navy Strength' gin launching in February and a limoncello gin in the pipeline for summer.

They're also planning on launching a range of Bucks Brothers merchandise.

Gus said: "There is always a bit of risk when starting something like this. We each backed the business with our own savings, which we obviously didn't want to lose.

"Having been made redundant, my only options were to apply for work or become my own boss - so I became my own boss and it's working out really well so far.

"It's become something we all really love. I'd much rather be doing this than what I was doing before so it's worked out really well. It's the best thing we've ever done."

The siblings are now hoping lockdown restrictions will ease, so they can spread their distinctive gin far and wide.

Jake said: "We've just bought and renovated a horse trailer which we're converting into a mobile gin bar. This means we can take Bucks Brothers on the road to events, weddings and festivals, which we hope will help to spread the word.

"In the future we see ourselves launching even more flavours - and branching out into other spirits, such as rum. We'd also love to open a Bucks Brothers distillery to the public one day."

Topics: Business, Awesome, Inspirational, Gin, Alcohol, Community

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey