Rob Wilson
Appearances
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
So we've got quite a unique bottle and we've gone down the kind of decanter presentation and actually put an image in the bottle. When we first did it, it was quite a unique concept of having an image kind of floating within the liquid behind the glass.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
We love that image of looking into the bottle. You'll see as well, within our bottle, we talk about the synergy of looking back and looking forward, so every single...
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
Our gin is about honouring veterans, kind of past and present, and we're kind of disconnecting away from the loss and the sacrifice that took place in the First World War. About a million British Empire soldiers died in the First World War, and about half have no known grave. And we've got 2,500 tacks, that's matched to the resource that we can put into it.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
2,500 tags of real people, real dads, real uncles, real sweethearts, real people that paid the supreme sacrifice. And I think it's really important for the very first time, open your bottle and make a toast to the person named on the dog tag. And then momentarily, that person's back in the room.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
Proceeds of this gin that you buy today will go and support modern-day veterans who are commonly left behind, commonly face struggle and hardship, which doesn't sit well with me at all. So we want to make a practical difference to the lives of... of those that are experiencing difficulties.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
So many, so many struck a chord with me. You know, as a Scots Guardsman, obviously, I instantly identify with your own, you know, and anyone who's been in the household division. However... You know, stories that stand out for me, 68-year-old Lieutenant Henry Webber, who was the oldest person to die on the Somme.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
He was a teacher at Tombridge School, but just didn't want to miss out on playing his part. A 15-year-old who lied about his age in order to join his friends at the front and send money back to his mother, who was really, really struggling. Three brothers of the Australian Infantry who died on the same day in Passchendaele in 1917.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
A unique dog tag in a sense that it's one of the few bottles that will have more than one dog tag on it. We've got a father and son, a Lieutenant Colonel Morehouse, a Captain Morehouse, again died on the same day within kind of sight of each other. So really, really kind of poignant and incredible stories from people that just gave their all. Battle of the Somme, 1st of July 1916.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
60,000 casualties on the first day, 20,000 dead.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
Absolutely. And, you know, generations of men kind of wiped out, really. And we want to keep these names kind of alive. We're really good at remembrance in this country for about a week. And then we switch it off again through the gin. We want to keep this spirit alive throughout the year because...
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
You know, it's a huge sacrifice that's kind of come before us and it's really important to keep that on at all times, I think.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
I was really keen on doing something charity kind of focused and... I love gin and I just thought it was really odd that there was no representation of the military, of our armed forces within that really, really busy gin space. A quarter of the population last year bought gin. It's an incredible gin.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
You upgrade your gin experience through this so you're not compromising on quality in order to support something. You're actually upgrading your gin experience but at the same time, You're honouring a really special group of people. This whole thing's a voluntary campaign. It's all profit goes out the other side through our community interest company. So it's a registered CIC company.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
Every penny of profit that comes from a bottle or a glass of gin comes out the other side. Now, what does that mean? In the past, we've worked with a bigger military charity to send funds into a quick reaction fund. The danger with the bigger charities is that sometimes the individuals on the ground can get lost.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
So we keep some back so when we hear a hardship story, we can kind of move really quickly. We will pay for a veteran networking breakfast, which is amazing. You know, 60 veterans in a room. So much positive can come from that kind of experience. Last month, the gin paid for some PPE for a veteran who really wanted to attend a training course, but he couldn't afford the PPE to do it.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
We did a one-off grocery shop for a former Royal Marine last month as well. So I'm just really, really struggling with that cost of living crisis. So working with some mainstream charities within their quick reaction funds, but also actually kind of having the ability to If we hear a story, if we hear any local hardship stories, we can strike kind of really, really quickly.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
So everything's going through and has that has that practical action.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
Yeah, we've done that. We've done that. And that's amazing. You know, you have a 19 year old former Royal Marine opposite a D-Day veteran. It's amazing. Only good comes from that kind of.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
experience whether it's someone looking for for work or someone needs some help with a contact we want to do more the more we sell the more we can do the gary baldy in in red hill call it the win-win gin because that's what it is it's providing a really high quality kind of gin experience, but equally supporting an incredible cause through practical action.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
Like a military person might be. It is. It's really strong. It is solid. It's kind of robust and rigid. And yeah, there's some overlaps there with kind of military language as well.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
We didn't want to necessarily go down a flavoured route because that can be very...
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
incredibly subjective so we wanted to kind of get a good classic elegant london dry gin started in the military by the dutch you know in the 1600s uh by the british and india to kind of combat malaria it's it's a military drink it's smooth enough to drink neat most gins you can't can't really do that because it's just there's that alcohol burn that comes Very elegant, very craft kind of premium.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
A recipe as good as the cause and purpose. So a lot of work went into that to make sure we've got an ultra premium liquid. We've got a secret ingredient. We've got about 10 botanicals, all kind of vapour infused, not macerated. Very old distillation method, which dates back to 1651, I think.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
very very kind of craft driven when we met again this afternoon a few minutes ago you told me about one local place where you've just got in but where else can people find it yeah so we're based in red hill and we've hit a lot of red hill in terms of independent venues restaurants a consumer can buy online direct through the website we're just trying to kind of get more venues all the time and it's a it's a very very hard market but
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
Again, we have a degree of uniqueness that others simply don't have in terms of that practical output, that practical action that comes when the bottle's empty. We are Redhill, Reigate, all around East Surrey really. Equally, we do have a good presence in London, three or four hotels on Park Lane. We've got Partridges in Sloane Square. We've got the Cadogan in Chelsea.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
So we're knocking on doors all the time.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
Yeah, that's incredible. Lovely. I think it's 13,000 square foot, a snooker room, a pool hall. And that's amazing. And they've got some great ideas linked to the gin there. to do some veteran kind of contests and Army versus Navy on the pool table and what have you. So, yeah, for us, local connection is really, really important. And the Belfry and Reds Hill have been incredible.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
We've had a showcase in there since June. Amazing opportunity to showcase what we do. Yeah, it starts with local, really. We have a real focus to try and do as much locally as possible. Dame Judy Dench is a fan of the gin. She's very local and, yeah, doing all we can to knock on doors and just broaden our expansion, really.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
100% you know we are we are a gin built on honouring veterans on honouring our extraordinary armed forces past and present and the peak of that is remembrance and yeah it's fantastic to use the gin buy some gin and actually honour those people remembrance for us is is a 365 thing and and obviously it peaks in November it peaks on on Armistice and Remembrance Sunday however
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
the purpose and the sentiment that's in the gin should be a kind of an all year round kind of thing. Yeah, remembrance is hugely important and certainly really poignant when you see the dog tag cards
The Planet Reigate Podcast
61: At Armistice, a unique local way to remember the area’s fallen… and more
so