Meet the entrepreneur turning her love of gin into a horsebox drinks business

A North West entrepreneur is capitalising on the growing popularity of premium gin and prosecco with a new mobile venture.

Carly Timmins is the mind behind The Gin Joint, a gin bar operating from a refurbished double horsebox.

After being made redundant last year, she decided to turn her passion for mixology and gin into a business with the help of St Helens Chamber.

Carly explained: “I was made redundant in October and then I bought the horse trailer, Ginny as she’s called. I have refurbished her, doing all the work myself.”

Carly said she has always enjoyed DIY projects, adding: “I’ve always been around my Dad who was very handy and did everything round the house. I watched him and learned from him and I’ve taken that forward.

“My girlfriend and I love gin and when I was made redundant I asked myself, ‘what do I like doing?’ I love making drinks, I’m chief drink maker for our friends and apparently I make good gin. So I thought that’s what I am going to do.”

Carly approached her local Jobcentre and was referred to the St Helens Chamber Start Up team, which offered her support on a number of business issues.

Being unemployed, she was eligible for the government’s New Enterprise Allowance, a support package aimed at helping people become self-employed.

Over the next six months, Carly plans to take The Gin Joint to food festivals.

She continued: “I’ve got contacts at the Liverpool Food and Drink festival, so hopefully that will happen next year. I am doing quotes at the moment for a couple of parties, so I have got some things in the pipeline.

“I am starting to build an internal bar, which will then be used for any event that is inside where access for the horse trailer isn’t available, for example in a wedding with a marquee.”

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