Student's home brews led to big Wetherspoons deal... and a very bitter fall out
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.
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.To begin with, business was slow. During the first 11 months of 2015 there were only 42 sales to eight customers.
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 details of which have been revealed by recently published court papers. By July 2018 Hammonds' monthly sales of Zymurgorium products topped £1m and in November 2018 alone they exceeded £1.7m. But cracks in the relationship were starting to show.
Zymurgorium had started to have direct contact with the pub company and, in December 2018, Hammonds discovered the firm had arranged to sell its products to Wetherspoons via another wholesaler. Mr Hammond wrote to his friend Mr Darke saying that was a 'serious breach' of their agreement which meant their 'commercial relationship' had come to an end.
However the judge ruled there wasn't an 'overarching or master agreement' between the two companies, but found there were individual contracts in relation to five customers, including Wetherspoons.
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