How Masons gin rose from the ashes

here are currently around 50 gins being made in Yorkshire. Yet when Karl and Cathy Mason started out seven years ago there weren’t any, in fact the nation’s obsession with gin hadn’t really started.

“We just thought there was a gap in the market for a Yorkshire gin that had something different to offer,” says Karl.

“Seven years ago, there really weren’t that many gins out there. It was very limited, Bombay Sapphire and Hendricks were about it,” says Cathy.

Karl became determined to hunt out new gins and post them on his Facebook page.

What started out as a hobby soon turned into a business idea, although it might not have happened.

“I started a Facebook group. People would send us gins to try for free and I would write about them. But it did take up a lot of my time, in fact, Cathy wanted me to stop it, but I had 10,000 followers and I started to realise it had legs.”

They found someone with a still in Cambridge and started experimenting with different botanicals and using Harrogate Spring Water, until they found what they were looking for.

“It had to be different – not just a different label but a different taste,” says Karl.

They ended up with three recipes that they were happy with and tried them out on friends.

“It wasn’t the best idea,” recalls Cathy. “Everyone just ended up getting drunk and we really couldn’t take anyone’s word for which one they liked. So we just kept distilling until we got the flavour we wanted.”

Cathy says there was never ‘‘a plan’’, as such. “We were working and there was no massive pressure on us to grow the business. We hadn’t invested our life savings in it or anything. It just happened,” she says, although Karl, who has a background in finance, said he always wanted it to be a commercial venture.

The game changer came when they managed to employ the services of a distiller who used to work for Tanqueray gin.

“He had moved to Yorkshire and got in touch with us. We had just bought our own still so once we employed him we started distilling properly.”

Once they had their favoured gin it was then a matter of telling people about it. They launched Masons Dry Yorkshire Gin on World Gin Day in 2013, producing just 120 bottles in their first batch.

Karl had a friend who worked for Lewis and Cooper in Northallerton who promised to stock Masons gin after tasting it.

“They became our first customers,” recalls Cathy, who started to take Masons to food and trade fairs across the country. “We then appeared in The Yorkshire Post and people started to ask if they could stock our gin.”

“Although we never had a business plan as we became busier we had to employ more people,” adds Karl.

Another landmark came when they got Masons into their first supermarket. “The first supermarket we were in was Booths, we then went to meet the buyer at Morrisons through Deliciouslyorkshire who’d been approached because the supermarket wanted to feature some Yorkshire products.”

“We have always wanted to collaborate with other Yorkshire products,” explains Cathy. Previously they had collaborated with Yorkshire Lavender. “It is quite unusual to use lavender in a gin but it has proved really popular.” At the same time they had also worked using Yorkshire Tea to bring out their Masons Tea Gin. “We’d tried to make an Earl Grey Tea gin years ago but it never really worked. But Yorkshire Tea works really well with gin.”

As sales of Masons Yorkshire Gin increased, the couple realised they were running out of space. When an old Mercedes workshop became available in Bedale, Cathy’s home town, they decided it was time to upscale and move.

“It was five times bigger than our old premises and we were able to make 400,000 bottles a year.”

It also allowed them to increase the number of people they employed to more than 30 and consider further product ranges.

However, they had been in their new premises less than two years when disaster struck when fire raged through the building in April last year and everything they had worked so hard to create was destroyed.

“We were fulfilling a big order and had in the loading bay 26 pallets holding roughly 25,000 bottles,” recalls Karl. “I got a call at 8am from staff who had run from the building as flames took hold. We lost everything, everything was destroyed.”

“Initially we were in a state of shock. We were just glad everyone was safe but we had no idea what it would mean for the business,” says Cathy.

“We couldn’t do anything but stand and watch it burn. But even at that point we were getting offers of help from the local community. Someone offered to let us use their stills so that we could keep up with production. It was incredible. The day after the fire the staff came round to our house and sat round the dining room table while we discussed what to do. They were all incredible. It was really very humbling and a positive experience.”

Incredibly, within a few days they were back in business. “We really didn’t have time to think about it. The support from the staff and the industry was amazing,” says Karl. Although the cause of the fire may never be totally known, the fire investigators believe it could have started in one of the stills.

“We will never know for certain, but we were really lucky as the insurance company was brilliant,” says Karl.

They were also lucky in the fact they had a new still on order which hadn’t arrived, if it had it, too, would have been destroyed in the fire. But it also meant they had to find new premises very quickly.

“We were very lucky that there was a brand new warehouse only two miles from us at Leeming Bar. We converted it into a distillery, bar area and shop and started making gin again in February.”

The first gin they made was a limited edition ‘Phoenix’ gin with £2.50 from the sale of each bottle going to the Fire Fighters Charity as a way of saying ‘‘thank you’’ to those that came to their aid during the fire. They also have Pear and Pink Peppercorn, and most recently Orange and Lime Leaf. But just weeks after opening, the pandemic struck and lockdown happened.

“We had planned to hold tours but obviously that had to be put on hold,” says Cathy. But as it turned out they have never been busier than during lockdown. Like many distillers they did start producing hand sanitiser which they provided free to the likes of RAF Leeming, the NHS and local business in Bedale, again as a way of saying ‘‘thank you’’ to those who helped them in their time of need.

This year also sees Masons rebrand for the first time. They not only have a new, more elaborate and tactile bottle, they have also had a subtle name change to Masons of Yorkshire. It will allow them to add other products to the brand.

As well as all their award-winning gins – they hold more accolades than any other Yorkshire gin-maker – they have a vodka and have not ruled out other spirits.

“We talk about it a lot. If we can do something that keeps the standards of Masons then we will look at it. We like to make different products for a reason not just because everyone else is doing them.”

www.masonsofyorkshire.com