We offer a range of distilling services to third parties
seeking to create their own brand of spirits.

How it works

In its simplest format, you select one of our spirits and standard bottles, and supply us with the right number of legally compliant labels and we will produce, bottle, label and ship our spirits with your label on them.  We can even offer design assistance for your brand and label.

For larger batch sizes, you can customise anything, including supplying your own  bottles and packaging, having your own unique spirit created and produce something completely of your own.  If you have the budget!  

Broadly speaking, our contract distilling client base falls into one of three categories:

• Private Label Clients who are looking for their own exclusive branded spirit to enhance their own brand. This includes clubs, lodges, hotels, festivals and event, where spirits will be sold, but also includes companies seeking corporate gifts, wedding and event-planners where the spirit will not be sold.  Our Boutique Private Label, with a limited range of spirit and bottle choices, is designed for smaller batches of 240 bottles or less, ideal for your next event.
• White Label Clients who are looking for their own brand of spirits for resale, usually through retail or online channels
• Custom Distilling Clients: who are looking for distilling services of some kind.  Projects include importing, reprocessing, blending or bottling bulk spirits for the local market, distilling surplus wine for a wine farm for ageing into brandy, or working with a partner company to create premixed cocktails.

We are also able to make and sell spirits in bulk containers to customers with the appropriate licence.

Licence requirements

It is illegal in South Africa to sell or serve alcohol to the trade or public without a liquor licence.

You do not need a liquor licence to buy Private Label spirits from us.  But you do need the appropriate liquor licence in order to sell or supply these spirits. 

•  An on-consumption licence allows bars, restaurants and taverns to sell spirits for on-site consumption.
• Licenced retailers ( e.g. bottle stores – including online liquor sales) can sell their own-branded spirits under their off-consumption licence.
• Event organisers may sell alcohol under their temporary event licence.
• A Distributors Licence  allows a person to buy and sell alcohol – including their own brand –  to licence-holders (the trade). This type of licence does not permit sales to the public.

None of these licences allow the licence-holder to manufacture alcohol, only to sell or serve it.

We may regretfully decline to sell you alcohol if we know you plan to sell it without a licence.

Recipe Development 

In most cases, our clients will select one of our existing products to white label or private label as this is quickest and least expensive. 

But we are also able to develop and manufacture specific unique recipes, especially in spirits like gins or liqueurs or flavoured vodkas and rums, where flavours are easily obtained through infusion, ginning or blending.

Recipe-making (having your own completely unique flavours made) is expensive and time-consuming, and really only worth it for large orders.  

Quick feasibility assessment

There are a few practical issues to consider with Contract Distilling

Minimum order quantities: (MOQ)    If you select one of our existing spirits, we can do quite small orders as the spirits are already made.   If you want a unique product to be made for you, then an MOQ of around 360 bottles or more is required.    If you plan to sell commercially, then small orders (which cost more per bottle) will not be very profitable.  To make reasonable profits, you should be looking at order sizes of 1000 or more, where costs come down and profit is higher. 

Pricing:  Our pricing is quoted per bottle.   Prices depend very much on batch quantities, the quality and type of spirit and the quality of the packaging.   The price goes down as order size increases, because the costs of production are able to be spread over a larger batch.  Orders of 1200 bottles or more are significantly less expensive, per bottle, than smaller orders.

We make premium craft spirits many of which are medal winners, and well suited to distinctive Private Labels.  

We do not produce cheap, mass-produced spirits, and we don’t cheat on Excise and VAT.  Please do not ask us to do these things. 

Costs that make up the price of every bottle of spirit sold in South Africa include raw materials, manufacturing costs, Excise Duty, bottle, cork (closure), anti-tamper, labels & labelling, packaging, shipping & delivery, as a start.   In our quotation to you we will accurately itemise all of these costs.     

Next steps

In order for us to assist you, please complete the following form to indicate which of our Contract distilling services you are interested in and we will do our very best to help you realise your goals and dreams!