The team at drinks firm Gosling’s is ready to field around half-a-million bottles of beer for Cup Match.

Staff at the firm started preparing for the event five months ago — and now the beer, together with thousands of bottles of their own signature Black Seal Rum and other spirits and wines, are heading out of its warehouse in preparation for the two-day celebration.

Gosling’s managing director and vice-president of marketing Charles Gosling said: “The Cup Match period is the busiest time of the year and really climaxes with Cup Match itself.

“We have visitor numbers at their highest and all the events that go on around Cup Match for an entire week.”

Mr Gosling said that the firm had around a quarter of its annual purchases on hand for the holiday.

He added: “We’ve been doing this for about 100 years and its part of our annual calendar — but there are always things that can throw you off a bit.”

He explained that a recovering world economy had made it harder this year to coordinate containers and trucks to transport products to New Jersey in the US for shipment on to Bermuda.

Mr Gosling said: “Every year there’s a different story and this year, interestingly, we’re seeing the bounce-back in the whole economy and that has impacted on our ability to bring products to the Island.

“Unless products are sourced in New Jersey, they have to be transported by container from dock to dock and that takes a lot of work and coordination.”

Mr Gosling added that this year’s Cup Match was on target to be a good one for the drinks trade.

“There are certainly a fair number of functions going on. In the business, we’re seeing a lot of activity, we’re seeing our customers do better,” he said.

“It can be hard to predict, but we have had a good year so far and June was better than expected.”

Mr Gosling added: “It does get quite hectic and there is always a number of people who forget when Cup Match occurs and come in at the last minute. That’s always a challenge.

“That’s more individual, private purchases, but we also get surprised by that one major customer who, for some reason, it slips their mind.”

Mr Gosling said a trend for more people to travel overseas for the Cup Match holiday, coupled with the loss of around 6,000 international business employees when the recession hit had dented business for two or three years.

But he said: “We have felt and seen a gradual restoration and gains each year since.

“When you take 6,000 international business people out of your market, well-paid individuals who entertained well and were good customers of our customers, that has a significant impact on your market.”

Mr Gosling said that the firm’s main Cup Match sellers remained beers Corona and Stella Artois.

“At the end of the day, it gets down to basics, which is beer. And more beer.

“Stella and Corona are the big players in that portfolio, although we do others like Boddington’s and we also bring in Guinness.”