Social Enterprise Spotlight – Ginerosity
Posted: 12 September 2017, in Press Release
Our newest Social Enterprise Spotlight is David Moore and Ginerosity – a social enterprise gin whose profits are poured back into projects to help disadvantaged young adults here and abroad. Get in touch with David at enquiries@ginerosity.com – check out www.ginerosity.com. Connect with them on Twitter too. Read and share their Q&A interview below!
Every few weeks we focus on a randomly selected social enterprise member for intense marketing support and promotion. Ginerosity will feature in all e-bulletins, on our website homepage and on all our social media, alongside other support, reaching thousands of people across Scotland and beyond. Want to star in the Spotlight? Email team@socialenterprise.scot
What’s your social and/or environmental mission? Ginerosity is a social enterprise gin that pours its profits into helping young adults. Working with the Edinburgh-based development charity Challenges Worldwide and other organisations, our funding supports young people into training and education. And while we focus on creating the gin and growing the business, we’ve an independent panel of 10 business leaders who direct our funding.
How do you do it? (Client group, practical daily work, customers) Virtuous circle, the ripple effect, social enterprise ecosystem… we like to think we’re working towards all three. So far, we’ve funded young adults on volunteer programmes in Africa where they work with social enterprises, enabling them to access social investment and grow their local economy. At the same time, the volunteers study for an industry qualification in managerial consulting – which we’ve funded – opening opportunities for them as social entrepreneurs so hopefully they’ll someday set up their own social enterprise.
What’s your personal motivation for being a social entrepreneur? The team behind Ginerosity are long-term supporters of good causes, and come from a variety of backgrounds – social entrepreneurs, the drinks sector, and the creative industries. We were united by the desire to bring our business experiences together in a formal way that would help disadvantaged young adults – something we’ve found immensely rewarding.
What are your current projects? At the moment we’re growing the Ginerosity brand – the more gin we sell the more people we can help. We’ve achieved great things in the past 10 months or so – listings in more than 100 bars and retailers across the country, as well as the supermarket Asda, and a few awards nominations to boot! And although we’re focused on driving the brand, we’re also looking at new ways we can support young adults and giving them the life skills so they in turn can help their own communities.
What exciting things do you have coming up? We have big plans for our brand – watch this space! We expect the run-up to Christmas to be an especially busy time as we use our profits to support more young adults, while also working to involve more people and grow the Ginerosity family. The first wave of Ginerosity-funded volunteers will be coming back from Africa soon, so we’re excited about sharing their stories too.
Who do you want to work with more? As we grow, we want to collaborate with more and more social enterprises. We saw that last month during the Edinburgh Festival when we had a Ginerosity bar at the Impact Festival Gardens, run by the social enterprise bar group Beer for Good. As well as our own bar, the gardens hosted about a dozen other social enterprises in the heart of Edinburgh, each showcasing their services and selling their products. It was a great way to promote the social enterprise movement.
What’s your biggest challenge? Launching a gin brand is not easy! It’s a very busy marketplace and there are some very big brands out there with massive marketing budgets. But we have a unique selling point – who wouldn’t like a gin where the profits help young people?! But with no marketing budget, we’ve had to build slowly, taking the time to tell our story and grow our fan base.
What top tips would you give to other social enterprises? Cash-flow is vital for any business, so budgeting and manageable growth are critical to everyone running a social enterprise. Thankfully, there’s a great support network out there, able to provide advice and inspiration. Also, speak to journalists, bloggers and other writers. Take the time to tell your story. Not everyone will listen, but persevere. And at the end of the week, remember to relax with a well-earned Ginerosity and tonic!