Bermuda’s newest drinks offer is going down well among a crowd of spirits owned by the conglomerates. The man who brought it to life said it was gaining in popularity.

The latest Retail Sales Index figures for July reported a slump in liquor sales value of 0.7 per cent but the Bermuda Gin Company is bucking the trend.

“Each month of this year has been better than the same month last year,” said Roy Fellowes, who founded the company six years ago.

He said the Bermuda Gin Company was a “real” company with a slight note of pleasant surprise.

“Many start-up companies fail in the first two or three years for various reasons,” he explained. “We are profitable. We are selling a lot of gin and each year it grows.”

The gin is distilled in the United Kingdom and shipped to Bermuda.

What sets his gin apart from his competitors are the botanicals, Mr Fellowes believes.

“Pink House was our first gin,” he said. “Even though we could not distil it here, we wanted a strong connection with Bermuda. One of the main botanicals in it is hibiscus flower, which you see everywhere.”

His White Roof gin contains prickly pear juice, among other things.

“Pink House is the most popular but White Roof is catching up,” he said.

Mr Fellowes started selling his products out of Harry’s At The Waterfront Restaurant and Bar, Miles Market and Port O’Call Restaurant in 2019.

“It was good to be in the supermarket, because people were buying spirits and wines during Covid-19,” he said. “Bars and restaurants were open, closed, open and then closed again.”

The bottles are available in most local supermarkets and liquor stores. There are also duty-free options for airport and cruise ship passengers and the Bermuda Gin Co products are served on BermudAir flights.

Mr Fellowes has considered expanding internationally, but has “never pulled the trigger”.

“The United States is so complicated,” Mr Fellowes said. “Every state has different liquor laws and you have to be licensed in each one to sell there. It is also expensive.”

American import tariffs introduced last year also further complicate the situation.

“We make our gin in the United Kingdom, so that would be the logical place to launch outside of Bermuda,” he said.

According to a March 2025 article in The Drinks Industry online publication, gin is projected to be more popular, possibly becoming a $22.73 billion industry by 2030.

“It goes through phases,” Mr Fellowes said. “I love that our bar staff in Bermuda are able to create really interesting cocktails with our gin and put it on their menus.”

When he first started thinking about the business, he considered building a distillery here. The Spirits Act of 1890 made that illegal.

Two years ago, that rule was changed by the Distilleries Licensing Act 2023, which established a licensing system for local distilleries and the sale of locally made distilled products.

“That is a good thing because now people have an option, whether they want to make it here or make it elsewhere,” Mr Fellowes said.

However, he said there was a lot to consider such as the cost of setting up a distillery, expertise and environmental issues such as waste and high water usage.

He thought that for the size of Bermuda, some kind of distillery arrangement or co-operative could work.

“We would certainly be interested in looking at that,” he said.

Mr Fellowes, and his wife, Susan, run the business part-time.

“We devote a couple of hours a day to it,” he said. “I’m on the board of a number of insurance companies and I work part time a couple of days a week for one of the international energy companies. So I am experiencing a really interesting balance of international business and local business.”

To reduce the environmental impact, the Bermuda Gin Company has teamed up with Singapore-based spirits distribution company ecoSpirits.

The company brings in some of its gin in 220-litre drums. The product is transferred from the drums, to specially constructed ecoTotes, which contain a 4.5 litre glass jar. Restaurants and bars use the ecoTotes to refill the gin bottles they have.

The ecoTote empties are sent back to Mr Fellowes for sterilisation and redistribution. The containers can last for up to five years.

“The whole point of eco spirits is eliminating single-use glass bottles,” Mr Fellowes said. “That has been very successful in Bermuda.”