London Cocktail Week becomes non-profit

Annual on-trade event London Cocktail Week (LCW) has officially become a not-for-profit organisation, the co-founders confirmed this week.

At a press briefing in London on Monday (8 July), London Cocktail Week co-founders Siobhan Payne and Hannah Sharman-Cox revealed the 2023 iteration of the festival was the ‘soft launch’ of the not-for-profit model.

Pernod Ricard acquired London Cocktail Week with its purchase of The Whisky Exchange in 2021. Payne and Sharman-Cox were obligated to stay for a year, no longer, but said their passion for the festival left them wanting to remain at the forefront of the organisation.

“We have been given an opportunity to shape what comes next,” explained Sharman-Cox. The pair was asked what they wanted to do with the festival, and after careful consideration concluded that ‘world domination’ was not their ambition.

“What we did ask for was to move London Cocktail Week to a not-for-profit,” Sharman-Cox continued. “We felt like we wanted to give London Cocktail Week back to the community.”

Payne added: “We love this industry; we have been in it so long and now we have this fresh excitement.”

New initiatives

Last year, the festival introduced a number of new initiatives as part of the move to being a non-profit. One example was The Connoisseur’s Collection, a programme of luxury experiences designed especially for the event.

Furthermore, the festival offered peer-to-peer learning opportunities for the trade last year. The Bartender Knowledge Exchange – The Connaught Bar, Behind the Scenes event offered an opportunity for professionals to learn from some of the best in the business.

“We hope London Cocktail Week in years to come will be known for that peer-to-peer learning,” said Payne.

Wristband sales directly from bars will be an additional way to help venues increase their revenue, as Payne continued to explain.

“Bars can now sell wristbands across their venues and keep 100% of the revenue,” Payne said. “We introduced this in 2023 and it worked well.

“With 200 bars [signed up for London Cocktail Week], if they sell all 100 of the wristbands, they can ask for more. That will put £400,000 [US$515,000] directly into bars. We want to support bars to sell those.”

Now in its 15th year, London Cocktail Week 2024 will take place from 3-13 October.

Payne and Sharman-Cox, along with Dan Dove, founder of Global Bartending, also recently co-founded The Pinnacle Guide. The first ‘pins’ were revealed in May this year.