If you're buying gifts for clients or staff this year, you have three decisions: how many, how much, and how far ahead you're willing to think. This is the post for the third one. We do corporate gifts at The Stillhouse, our distillery outside Biggar in South Lanarkshire, so we're not neutral. But the timings below are the timings, whoever you buy from.
The short version
- Three routes: ready-to-send gift sets with no minimum; co-branded gifts with your logo on the packaging or glassware; or a bespoke spirit with its own recipe and label.
- Co-branded and bespoke work is quoted per job, with no fixed minimum. Allow four to six weeks from sign-off: the artwork for co-branded, the recipe for bespoke.
- For gifts to arrive in the first or second week of December, co-branded artwork needs signing off by 23 October; the end of October buys the second week. Ready-to-send sets can go as late as the postal deadline.
- We handle the boring parts: quantities, gift wrapping, overnight delivery where it matters, and sending to multiple addresses.
The three routes at a glance
| Route | What you get | Minimum | Lead time | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ready to send | Gift sets from the shop, gift-wrapped, sent to one address or many | None | Same as a normal order | Shop prices |
| Co-branded | Our spirits, your logo on the packaging, glassware or accompanying materials | No fixed minimum; quoted per job | Four to six weeks | Quote |
| Bespoke | A spirit made for you: your recipe, bottle and label, distilled here in a limited batch | By project; we don't take every one | Four to six weeks from an agreed recipe, longer if the recipe is still being developed | Quote |
Route one: ready to send
This is the shop, bought in bulk. There's no minimum, no customisation and no lead time beyond a normal order, so it's the route for anyone reading this in late November. The sets that work best for a batch of gifts are the ones that don't need explaining. The Miniature Triple Pack (£18) is three 5cl gins in a box, which is a tasting and a gift in one. Two bottles from the core range make up the 20cl Gift Pack, big enough to drink and small enough to post. For a bigger gift, the Build a Gift Box holds two bottles, or a bottle and a pair of glasses, in a two-compartment box.
For a wider spread of prices, from a £5 miniature to a £44 cocktail box, our Christmas gift guide lists the whole range by who you're buying for. Everything in it can be ordered in quantity; for a hundred or more, tell us early so we can hold stock. If you need it sent to twenty addresses rather than one, tell us and we'll handle the split.
Route two: co-branded
Co-branded means our spirits with your identity on the outside: your logo on the packaging, on glassware, or on something that goes in the box alongside the bottle. The gift is clearly from you, and the gin inside is ours, with the credentials that come with it. Biggar Strength scored 98 out of 100 at the IWSC in 2022 and three Great Taste stars the same year. Those numbers do a fair bit of the talking on your behalf.
One co-branded programme we've run was with Vegware, the compostable-packaging brand: custom packaging and embroidered accessories produced alongside our bottles. The gift was two brands doing what each does best, rather than one brand stuck on the other. There's no fixed minimum. We quote per job, because a run of twenty branded boxes and a run of two hundred cost different amounts per box and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. Allow four to six weeks from the point we agree the artwork. That covers proofing, print and packing.
Route three: bespoke
Bespoke is the route for an organisation that wants a spirit nobody else has. A recipe developed for you, your own bottle and label, distilled at The Stillhouse in a limited batch using the same process as our own range. We've done it for Shieldhill Castle. We've done it for Scottish Opera, whose 60th anniversary gin, Suonare, used botanicals from Seville, France, Calabria, South America and the Scottish Borders. Its label has a die-cut Puccini score. Read the Scottish Opera Suonare story.
Two honest caveats. Bespoke is a significant undertaking, and we don't take on every enquiry; it needs to be the right project for a distillery our size. And the four-to-six-week lead time starts once the recipe is agreed. If the recipe still needs developing, add the time it takes to get it right, which we won't rush.
Working back from December
Most corporate gifts want to land in the first or second week of December, before offices empty. Work backwards from there.
- Bespoke: the recipe should be agreed by the third week of October at the latest, and that assumes the recipe already exists. If it still needs developing, a bespoke spirit is now a project for next year.
- Co-branded: artwork signed off by 23 October for delivery in the first week of December if the run takes five weeks, the second if it takes the full six. Sign-off by the end of October buys the second week on the same terms. Early November still works for delivery before Christmas, but not comfortably.
- Ready to send: any time up to the last posting dates, which we'll publish on the blog in late November. Order in November and we can gift-wrap without rushing and post before the December rush.
Whichever route, the deadline that matters is yours, not ours. Tell us the date the gifts have to arrive and we'll tell you straight whether it's achievable.
What to have ready when you get in touch
Corporate enquiries come to us directly, not to an agency or a form that files itself. Four things let us come back with a proper proposal rather than a list of questions:
- How many gifts you need.
- Your budget per gift, roughly. Shop prices are the reference point: £18 to £44 for the smaller sets, £37 to £43 for a bottle, more for a two-bottle box.
- Which route: ready to send, co-branded or bespoke.
- The date they have to arrive, and whether that's one address or many.
With those, we can quote. Send a corporate gifting enquiry, or call 01899 872122; we're in the distillery Tuesday to Thursday and happy to talk it through. If you're a bar or shop wanting to stock the gin rather than give it away, that's a different conversation, and our trade page is the place for it.
Enjoy responsibly. Our spirits are for adults aged 18 and over.