)
A gin brand founded by Gold Coast entrepreneur James Greig now has a presence nationally after Coles (ASX: COL) planted Wildflower Gin on shelves from Perth to Sydney and everywhere in between.
Following a trial period which saw Wildflower Gin’s ‘Signature Gin’ product sold locally at Coles’ bottle shops in Queensland, Greig says the award-winning spirit is now in 312 stores around the country at Liquorland, First Choice and Vintage Cellars-branded outlets.
“We started with Coles here in Queensland as part of a campaign where they created five spots for local distilleries - and it did really well, so much so they’ve decided to take it nationally,” said Greig, who also founded website design and marketing platform Bloomtools and events booking tech iVvy.
“There’s probably in the order of about 350 to 400 distilleries around Australia now, and they’ve picked us among incredible competition which is great.”
To support the national scale, which Greig says will potentially double Wildflower’s revenue, the company is expanding into a new building, giving Wildflower additional distilling and storage capacity.
“When you’re a small distillery, it’s easy to work around a small space. But as we’re growing, I need more space to expand, and have more equipment, to make things more efficient generally,” said Greig, who won the 2021 Gold Coast Young Entrepreneur Award in the Digital Disruptor category.
The entrepreneur’s moves to grow Wildflower follows the brand boasting 180 restaurants and bars in South East Queensland as stockists, as well as the launch of a new Pink Gin product which Greig said had been performing well.
“In terms of performance, the Pink Gin has been doing as well as the Signature Gin at bars and restaurants,” said Greig, named number 26 in Australia’s Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs for 2021.
“I think the reason for that is it’s just so beautiful - it really stands out on the back shelf and people see it and want to try it as a result.”
)
