Brighton Gin founder and managing director Kathy Caton has been made an MBE in the King’s new year honours list.
Ms Caton, 51, said: “I can’t tell you surprised and shocked I am to have been put forward for this.
“I was particularly moved about the kind things that people have had to say about the role of Brighton Gin in the local community and championing diversity in the workplace and our efforts to start a new industry for Brighton despite all the trials and challenges of recent years.
“I’m going to mark the occasion with a hefty Seaside Strength Brighton Gin and Tonic (possibly two) but first I need to work the New Year’s Eve shift glass-collecting in our pop-up pub the Bottom’s Rest – keeping it real!”
Ms Caton set up the business more than 10 years ago after “months of experimentation with different ingredients, combinations, distilling techniques and approaches and more than one or two accidents along the way – but we lived to tell the tale!”
Early bottles were tried and tested on family and friends, with some of the first batches sold in local pubs such as the Urchin, in Hove.
It has since found its way on to supermarket shelves including, most recently, in dozens of branches of Sainsbury’s.
Brighton Gin even offers tours of its distillery, in Portslade, where it also has a gift shop.
The company’s website said: “Our distillation process removes the gluten from Brighton Gin and we’re also the first craft gin to be certified 100 per cent vegan which includes our wax bottle tops and the gum we use to stick our labels.
“True to our founding principles, each bottle is carefully washed and filled by hand, we stick each label on and dip every one in wax ourselves: no factory production lines here.
“We also try to keep our carbon footprint down by delivering in Brighton and Hove on our specially adapted gin bike – that’s a lot of huffing and puffing up some of those hills.”
Last year, Ms Caton became a director of the Gin Guild, a trade body for gin distillers and distributors.
She has also enjoyed a career in broadcasting, working for the BBC and presenting and producing the Out in Brighton show on the independent community station Radio Reverb for almost eight years.
Sussex Innovation chief executive Nigel Lambe said: “I am absolutely thrilled that Kathy has been recognised. She is a brilliant businesswoman, a role model to many and a genuinely warm and kind person.”
Well done Kathy and the team. Great to see a business leader being recognised in Brighton.
The article overlooks the fact that the discerning prefer the more subtle tang provided by even the merest sniff of a glass of Hove Gin, which is a by-word for the essence of piquant.
She gets an MBE for peddling gin?