Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhán Payne to buy London Cocktail Week
Co-founders Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhán Payne will acquire London Cocktail Week from Pernod Ricard-owned Speciality Drinks.
London Cocktail Week has become an indispensable date in the drinks industry’s calendar. Over the last 16 years, the trade show has continuously evolved in an effort to meet the changing needs of the on-trade community. The show was originally founded in 2010 when Sharman-Cox and Payne were working with Simon Difford at Difford’s Guide.
In 2014, London Cocktail Week joined the Speciality Drinks portfolio, founded and owned by brothers Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh and sold to Pernod Ricard in 2021.
While Sharman-Cox and Payne have owned minority shares in London Cocktail Week in the past, this acquisition will mark the first time the women have taken total ownership. The deal is expected to be finalised by February 2026.
For all involved, this was the “perfect moment for us to take London Cocktail Week” into its next chapter.
“[Pernod Ricard has] been so generous. First, because they understood [London Cocktail Week] needed to be bigger than just an event; they let us move it towards a non-profit model. They recognised that this is something we’ve dedicated our career to building and they understood that,” Sharman-Cox explains.
“It is for the good of the festival for it to stay with us, for it to grow into whatever it might become – but the only people that can do that is the people that founded it, who care about it so urgently,” Payne adds.
It has been a long-running conversation between all parties and a happy end result for everyone, too, lining up with the recent rebrand of The Whisky Exchange, Speciality Drinks (the arm under which London Cocktail Week sat in the company, which is now The Whisky Exchange Trade), and Whisky.Auction.
Natalie Tennent, managing director for The Whisky Exchange, commented: “As we move into our new chapter and our exciting new look for The Whisky Exchange, this felt like the right time to release London Cocktail Week into the capable hands of Hannah and Siobhán.
“They have always been the driving force behind the festival and we’re excited to watch it continue to blossom in the coming years.”
Most innovative years so far
Sharman-Cox describes the last few years as some of their most innovative to date.
“As employees under Pernod and Speciality, we have changed the entire voice of the festival,” she explains. “We’ve changed the branding look and feel, we’ve changed the emphasis, we’ve given it a mission statement, we work with the [London] mayor’s office to make sure that we run community days so that people feel heard. We’ve added in new initiatives like ‘Connoisseurs’, which appeals to a certain demographic, and we’ve added in the ‘Bartender Knowledge Exchange’, which appeals to the trade – we’ve done so much work.”
One of the highlights – and a resounding success, the duo state – was the introduction of allowing bars taking part in London Cocktail Week to sell wristbands from their establishments and retain all profits.
It circles back to Sharman-Cox and Payne’s steadfast belief that London Cocktail Week should first and foremost serve the bars and bartenders taking part, not themselves.
“If [the bars] sell all of [the wristbands], it’s £2,000 [US$2,685] in the till. What it means is that those people feel really invested. It’s their festival time. And that’s so important; this isn’t our festival, it’s not for us.” Sharman-Cox says.
“The point is that it’s for this city. When a cocktail festival is good is when it shows off what we have perfectly, when people want to fly in, when tourism goes up. That’s the bit that matters.”
Given this stance, with this year’s London Cocktail Week wrapped up as of yesterday (19 October), Sharman-Cox and Payne are planning on having a mini consultation to gauge honest feedback from the trade. When the pair were establishing their other business, The Pinnacle Guide, co-founded with Dan Dove, they hosted an 18-month consultation period. While the London Cocktail Week consultation won’t be anywhere near as long, the new owners will be reaching out to bartenders, bar owners and PR representatives for insights before work gets under way for next year’s edition.
“We’re not resting on our laurels,” says Payne, “and not just assuming that because something works, then it should be how it is. It’s always good to ask whether something can be better. I’m not afraid to change if it can be better, and that’s the key. That’s why we changed our tone of voice in 2021.
“Between 2021/2022, that was quite a big step for us because we were going from this mass-market vibe of happy hour cocktails to something that is actually celebrating the craft and the people behind the bars. It was quite a leap of faith and it was 100% the right thing to do; our quality of guest is significantly better from that change. It’s learning from our past, learning where to change, where to ask the questions – and it might be that nothing needs to change, and that’s OK as well.”
London Wine Week also part of the acquisition
What is also exciting is the acquisition of London Cocktail Week will also include the purchase of London Wine Week. While there are no set plans to relaunch the event, the pair are tangibly excited about its prospects and carefully considering its future.
“Our priority is London Cocktail week and getting that into a really good place that we feel comfortable with,” Payne stresses.
There are now myriad ‘Cocktail Weeks’ around the world, many of which have inarguably been inspired by London’s success story. Sharman-Cox and Payne welcome their developments and have frequently given their time and expertise to those who’ve asked because they believe so deeply in the concept – and in the global bar community. They are staunch believers a good cocktail festival can only be run by people from the respective city, meaning London will be their sole focus as they progress in this new chapter of ownership.
London Fashion Week aspirations
I ask them what their ultimate ambition for London Cocktail Week would be.
“We would like to be taken as seriously as – and this is really ambitious – London Fashion Week,” says Sharman-Cox. “That’s what we’d like. There’s no reason why it couldn’t be. It’s heading in the right direction.
“We’ve knocked on the door a lot at the mayor’s office. We’ve made a fuss. We’ve prodded it under the noses of the right people. We’ve explained the business model.
“It’s easy to be flippant when you’re not from the industry, it’s easy to be flippant about the fripperies of a cocktail – but it’s not.”
“Why is that more flippant than fashion,” Payne asks. “I’d say that now, more so than ever, we have the capability to do it because society’s drinking culture has changed to be a bit more responsible, especially in the UK. We can actually celebrate the art of a good cocktail – it could be an alcoholic cocktail, a low-alcoholic cocktail, a tiny cocktail. It’s not about ‘booze Britain’ anymore. It’s about that as a craft and part of London’s culture. We’re in a really good position over the next 10 years to really level up.”
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