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Elephant Gin

History of Elephant Gin
Elephant Gin is an award winning, handcrafted premium gin made from African botanical ingredients. All ingredients are hand-selected in Africa, bottles and packaging are custom made, labels hand-written and its production efforts are considered and controlled by keeping them to small batches. The product contributes 15% of its funds to various conservation groups working to protect the African elephants. While its roots are in South Africa, the Gin product is produced in Germany in order to maintain the highest quality of production regulations. Elephant Gin has made a large monetary contribution to the conservation of African Elephants.

Manufacturing and Marketing
Elephant Gin is distilled using 14 different South African botanicals, including rare ones that have never been used in spirits before. All of the botanicals used are hand selected by pickers in order to limit impurities in the ingredients. As well as the alcohol parts, the aromatic ingredients used in the gin include; Devil’s Claw, African Wormwood, Apple, Juniper, Ginger, Mountain Pine, Orange Peel, Pimento, Cassia Bark, Elderflower, Lavender, Sloe Berries, Buchu, Baobab and Lion’s Tail. The alcohol in Elephant Gin is a premium rye-based London Dry Gin of 52% Alcohol and is rested in oak until bottled.

Elephant Gin is distilled through a traditional copper distillation process. The alcohol is not produced on mass scale but produced in multiple small batches of around 600 at a time. The bottles are custom produced with handwritten labels. Elephant Gin’s distillation factory is located in Germany, one hour east of Hamburg. The company have based their production processes in Germany due to its high manufacturing standards.

Elephant Gin is a product that rides on current marketing trends in order to gain traction and increase sales. It genuinely contributes to a charitable cause while delivering a popular commodity to consumers. These are factors, which in the business world, have proved to contribute to an overall successful product (Blasco, 2018). Elephant Gin and similar products have shown to become very popular through this charitable angle as well as continuing to remain relevant through their continual marketing and fundraising for this product and its cause. In 2018, consumers spent 461 million pounds on gin in England alone, meaning this industry grew by 32.5% compared to the previous year (Wallace, 2018).

Contribution to Elephant Conservation in Africa
With every full-sized bottle purchased, Elephant Gin contributes 15% of profits to Big Life Foundation and Space for Elephants, while with each miniature bottle sold, 15% of profits is donated to Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, all organisations contributing to the conservation of African elephants.

Currently, the Elephant Gin brand has contributed over 500,000 Euros to these foundations through the sale of bottles and fundraising. Elephant Gin team members travel to Africa and their partner organisations often delivering the donations on the ground.

Elephant Gin has three main areas of focus; Anti-poaching and Human-wildlife-conflict management in Kenya, employment opportunities in South Africa and Caring for and fostering orphan elephants.

Various wildlife organisations have been founded in attempt to protect African Elephants such as the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), declaring the selling or trade of ivory illegal (STILES, 2004). However, environmental conservationist D. Stiles argues that local governments are not proactive or responsible enough in this realm and that elephants still need extensive care and protection from both poaching and the ivory trade in order to prevent another population decline. Around twenty to thirty years ago, the largest concern for elephants in Kenya was the poaching crisis, however, this has rapidly changed as the human population largely grew. Now, what’s known as ‘Human-elephant conflicts’ are now the biggest issue in need of urgent attention (Omondi, Ngene, 2012).

Awards and Achievements
Elephant Gin’s production process if focused on environmental and social sustainability. Thus, the company’s environmentally considerate production methods have been recognised by various organisations such as ‘Positive Luxury’; a company aimed to close the trust gap between brands and consumers.

Awards obtained by Elephant Gin over recent years include:

-      International spirits challenge 2019, double gold

-      World spirits competition, double gold

-      World gin awards 2019,

-      World spirit awards 2018, double gold

-      World spirit awards 2018, gold

-      International spirits challenge 2018, trophy

-      International spirits challenge 2018, gold

-      World spirits award 2017, gold

-      International spirits challenge 2017, trophy

-      International spirits challenge 2017, gold

-      The spirits business 2017, gold

-      World spirits award 2016, spirit of the year

-      World spirits award 2016, double gold

-      World gin awards 2016

-      International spirits challenge 2015

-      World spirit awards 2015, gold

-      Goldeneir preis 2015

-      World spirits award 2014, gold

-      Positive luxury brands to trust

Reference List
Christoph, N. and Bauer-Christoph, C. (2007). Flavour of Spirit Drinks: Raw Materials,

Fermentation, Distillation, and Ageing. Flavours and Fragrances: Chemistry, Bioprocessing and Sustainability, pp.219-239.

Blasco, I. (2018). The rise of consumer centricity in the alcohol industry. Retrieved from

https://www.interbrand.com/best-brands/best-global-brands/2018/sector-overviews/rise-consumer-centricity-alcohol-industry/

STILES, D. (2004). The ivory trade and elephant conservation. Environmental

Conservation, 31(4), 309-321. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44520788

Omondi, P., & Ngene, S. (2012). The National Elephant Conservation and Management       Strategy (2012-2021) at a Glance. The George Wright Forum, 29(1), 90-92. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43598980

Wallace, T. (2018). Gin sales triple as Brits turn to high-end booze. Retrieved from

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/03/gin-sales-triple-brits-turn-high-end-booze/