SB Interviews… Christopher Hayman

Celebrating their family’s 150th anniversary as gin distillers, Christopher Hayman and his son James tell Tom Bruce-Gardyne why heritage and tradition still count

James Hayman followed in his father Christopher’s footsteps in the family gin business

Two years ago Hayman Distillers released Hayman’s 1850 Reserve gin – its first caskrested bottling based on an old family recipe.

In April, given what they say about imitation and flattery, Pernod’s Chivas Brothers paid them the ultimate compliment of launching their own cask-rested gin – Beefeater Burrough’s Reserve. For company chairman and MD Christopher Hayman, it was proof of how the big distillers are taking their lead from the innovative, small guys, and also poignant considering that James Burrough was his great grandfather.

As a brand Hayman’s has only been on the market since 2004, but as gin distillers, celebrating their 150th anniversary this year, the family boasts an unbroken line for five generations – Christopher being the fourth. He joined James Burrough Ltd straight from university in 1969 when Beefeater was the world’s most exported gin with US sales of over a million cases a year. Though Smirnoff was growing fast, and a few hipsters were starting to emulate James Bond with his Vodka Martinis, gin was the pre-eminent white spirit.

According to Hayman, the classic American business lunch kicked off with two Beefeater Martinis, and when times were tough, the number went up to three. Even with the impact of the hit TV show Mad Men, it is hard to see those days coming back. Though perhaps the real writing on the wall for gin was the first ‘Vodka & Tonic’ – a bar call Hayman began to notice from the early 1980s.

Soon afterwards the good ship Burrough ran into trouble when its biggest market banned imports of bottled gin in retaliation for an EU embargo on American grain.

A long, independent history

Although the dispute was settled, the company was put up for sale and eventually bought by Whitbread in 1987. “I was very sad about it because I felt my time had come,” says Hayman, the only family member of his generation still on the board. From the sale he acquired the Fine Alcohols division of James Burrough plc, and turned part of it into Hayman Distillers.

Having lost control once, he is not going to let it happen again. “We’re determined to remain independent,” he insists, having been joined by his daughter Miranda, now marketing director and son James, group deputy MD. “When I joined 10 years ago gin wasn’t interesting at the time, it was seen as old fashioned,” says James Hayman. “Gin drinks weren’t particularly well-made with most G&Ts made from a spray gun, rather than bottled tonic. The development of tonic, with all the new brands on the market, has played a key role in actually helping gin become a more popular spirit.”

He mentions how the dominance of G&T varies from market to market, from about 30% of gin sales in the States to 85% in Spain. “The way the Spanish drink their G&T is a real piece of theatre. I’d love to see people drink them over here as they do in Spain. I think it would help drive the category even more.”

Yet when he started the category was going in the other direction. “Gin had become a cheap spirit. A lot of production had moved from England to Scotland, and established brands were being contract packed abroad.” It was telling that the first brand he and his father developed together was not a classic gin, but Hayman’s 1820 – a 40% abv gin liqueur.

Christopher Hayman is proud of his “family of gins”

Missed opportunity
Of course things would have been very different if anyone had had the foresight to register ‘London Dry gin’ as an appellation like Plymouth gin or Champagne, as Christopher acknowledges. “Do you know I don’t think it was ever even considered. It should have been done back in the ‘50s. It was a great shame and a definite missed opportunity.”

By the time it was thought about, ‘London Dry’ had become as generic as Yorkshire pudding – something you can produce anywhere in the world.

He swears he never for a moment doubted the future of the spirit, even in the dark days when the big brands were being starved of affection by their owners – notably Beefeater in the hands of Allied Domecq. Apparently Allied once even considered selling off the brand’s famous London distillery. “At Beefeater we had our ups and downs, but, no gin’s such an established spirit I never lost my faith in it.”

Today you can’t really question the belief of the spirits giants when it comes to Scotch whisky, given the billions they have invested in new distilleries and the like, but what of their commitment to gin? “I think they’re still great believers,” says Christopher, “and the gin renaissance is actually making them put more thought and money behind the category which is good for all of us.”

Gin variation

As for his own portfolio, whose sales are currently 80% export, he talks of “a family of gins”. Along with the gin liqueur, there is a London Dry made with 10 classic botanicals, an Old Tom – once the most popular spirit in the hey day of the Victorian gin palace, a sloe gin and the navy strength Royal Dock. At 57% abv – said to be the maximum strength of spirit you can accidentally spill on gunpowder without affecting its explosive capabilities, it sounds perfect for anyone who wants a rocket propelled G&T. But search for some exotic, new ingredient in the range – something plucked from a tropical rain forest – and you will search in vain.

It is proudly, almost fiercely, traditional, for which James Hayman makes no apologies. “Five years ago every new gin had to have a new botanical, be it cucumber, rose petals or an African botanical. But that has evolved and people recognise that the best type of gin is a classic gin. Everything we do in terms of innovation is to look at history and how gin used to be made. We have been distilling since 1863 so we look at what we have done over that time. We want to be true to what we do, and it’s important for us to have authenticity around every style of gin we produce.”

What sets his father’s teeth on edge is when people refer to gin as just ‘vodka with herbs’. James agrees. “Vodka just makes a drink alcoholic and doesn’t add any flavour, balance or depth to it. Gin provides exactly that, and that’s why it is an important component in cocktails.” If the drink can stay true to its roots, both believe that consumers will continue to embrace it.

Christopher Hayman predicts the over-saturated gin category will soon slim down

Gin renaissance
The Haymans date the spirit’s renaissance to about four to five years ago with the great influx of boutique gins that caused the established brands to sit up and take notice.

Facsimiles began to appear, like Gordon’s new cucumber-flavoured gin launched this spring in a brazen copy of William Grant’s Hendrick’s. With its iconic brown bottle and quirky Victorian imagery, Hendrick’s has been the flag-bearer for a whole new generation of craft gins. As well as creating a buzz and expanding the premium category – up 11.6% in the UK according to the IWSR – these newcomers are also stretching the definition of gin.

On which note, some are beginning to worry things may have gone too far. Joanne Moore, master distiller at J&G Greenall’s, fears this quintessential English spirit might one day be stretched into meeting its arch rival coming the other way. “Dare I say it, but we’d then end up just being a very sophisticated flavoured vodka.” Christopher feels there may well be a challenge at some point where someone questions whether a particular gin is within the EU definition of the spirit. Juniper is meant to be the predominant flavour, but quite who would arbitrate in such a dispute is another matter.

There’s no official gin policeman in Brussels as far as anyone knows, though it could be a job for the Gin Guild. Chaired by Christopher, this new body was set up a year ago under the umbrella of the Worshipful Company of Distillers. Its remit is “to ensure excellence in distillation and increase the awareness of gin around the world”.

For all that, James Hayman insists that “traditional, classic styles of gin are still leading the way”, and that anything edgy and controversial is produced on too small a scale to threaten the category.

Heritage counts

Like many, Christopher predicts there will be a shakedown in the category. “People come in, try their gin, and if it doesn’t work, they drop it. The other thing is that some of the craft distillers see themselves as really whiskey producers. When the whiskey stocks become available, they’ll pay less attention to gin and vodka.”

Of course the great constraint for anyone not blessed with the distribution muscle of Diageo or Pernod Ricard, for example, is route to market. Competing with the giants is always a challenge, but for Christopher there are compensations.

“One of the great things about being a smaller company is that a lot of your sales are based on personal contacts and relationships.” The 150 years of producing the stuff and the whole James Burrough connection pays dividends. “There was one guy in Italy who came up to me and said ‘Christopher, you are the first genuine distiller I have met who has a genuine heritage. I am only going to buy my gin from you’. The fact is we haven’t had to create a heritage, it’s there written in the history books.”

It is a heritage that clearly influenced his son from an early age. “I remember coming down to London on the train every school holiday and going to see Dad at the distillery. That intense smell of botanicals is one of my very earliest memories.”

Apparently the young Hayman would be scooped up from the train station in Beefeater’s very own Rolls Royce. Those were the days.

Christopher says he is a great believer in family businesses despite the sale of James Burrough’s and Beefeater. The dynasty has survived in tact in its new guise as Hayman Ltd, though the real challenge will come with whoever succeeds James and Miranda. Only a fifth of family firms survive beyond the third generation.

Raising capital without access to the City is clearly a constraint, but for Hayman senior that is the price you pay “if you want to run your own operation without too much outside influence”.

So what’s new, and what can we expect? “We’ve just relaunched the Hayman’s range in new packaging with a 1947 family gin bottle,” says James. “And we’ve got a few ideas for the future.” Whatever’s planned, don’t anticipate anything too off the wall from the world’s longest serving gin distillers still in the game. “It will be based on history,” says Christopher Hayman. “We’re quite traditional.” And compared to some of the new boutique distillers out there, that might just be an understatement.