Student's home brews led to big Wetherspoons deal... and a very bitter fall out
06.06.2023 - 18:51
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
It was the kind of overnight success story every small business owner dreams of. Aaron Darke set up Salford-based Zymurgorium gin company shortly after leaving university in 2012.
But a fall-out, leading to a lengthy and bitter court battle that has taken years to resolve, would be triggered by a friend secretly exploring the idea of starting his own range - and a deal Mr Darke's company struck with pub chain Wetherspoons.
Aaron Darke was studying microbiology at university when he began experimenting with brewing alcohol in the shed of his family home in Northern Moor.
With his nascent company specialising in new and playful flavours like sweet violet, Turkish delight, cherry bakewell and a marshmallow gin called 'Realm of the Unicorn', Darke began marketing his gin around Greater Manchester.
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To begin with, business was slow. During the first 11 months of 2015 there were only 42 sales to eight customers. Eager to expand his business, in mid-November 2015 Mr Darke set up a meeting with Jonathan Hammond, managing director of long-established drinks wholesaler Hammonds.
The two men got on well. Impressed by the brand and its founder, Mr Hammond initially agreed to take a dozen bottles of each of the eight flavours Zymurgorium produced.
It was the start of a fruitful business relationship for both parties. And it also marked the beginning of what a judge described as a 'personal friendship' between Mr Darke and Mr Hammond that 'went beyond that strictly necessary for a business relationship'.
The exact details of what was or wasn't agreed at that very first meeting would, several years later, see the two firms locked in a bitter legal battle, the