London South East interviewed Aquis-listed British Honey Company (BHC.PL) Chairman and CEO Michael Williams. In a comprehensive interview, Michael explained the company's roots as a producer of high quality British Honey, and the transition four years ago into a maker of honey-infused British gin and other spirits.

Today British Honey has a market cap of around 19 million pounds and Michael is keen the company is seen as a British success story: in the future he is looking to grow the business online, targeting export sales of gin and spirits to Europe, the US and China.

BHC recently raised £6.23M of capital, 5M of which was used to buy Union Distillers, a deal which Michael describes as 'transformational'.

"It will take us to a new level, sales will be substantially increased in this year and we have added a big portfolio of new customers".

Mark Gamble will join the BHC board and holds 16% of the shares. "Mark and Union developed our first honey gin for us four years ago" said Michael, "and its been a very good relationship. Its marvellous that Mark and I have got together and we are looking forward to making some major changes to both businesses."

British Honey successfully IPO'd on the Aquis Growth Market in March last year raising funds and gaining institutional shareholders. "Going on to Aquis was a good, quick and pragmatic experience and we floated and raised money from city institutions" said Michael. It is worth noting that every employee holds shares in the company, something which Michael Williams is rightly proud of.

"We have a very sophisticated software set-up which enables us to do a stock-take at the end of the month, and we report to HMRC on time with all stock reconciled at the end of the month. Most companies do this manually. We have also built EDI connections to Amazon and Ocado, and just recently to the Co-op which allows orders to flow through into our back office."

BHC produce gin from a distillery in Worminghall in Oxfordshire, and hope to open a second distillery on Oxfordshire’s Tusmore Estate, expected late 2021, where it will produce a Tusmore Single Estate Triple Distilled Premium English Whiskey to add to its Single Malt Tusmore Whiskey.

With the acquisition of Union Distillers, British Honey aims to create a multi-category brand portfolio and plans to install a new canning line and boost production at Union Distillers. The combined capacity will enable the production of three million bottles, seven million cans and five million miniatures this year.