How Glasgow's Good Spirits Co are bringing back 'good old fashioned retail'

The award, sponsored by this paper, is part of the Glasgow Business Awards organised by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce with Royal Bank of Scotland as the main sponsor.

If you're looking for an inspiring example of how taking a chance and going it alone in business can have some serious rewards, look no further than The Good Spirits Company.

Ten years ago, Matthew McFadyen and his colleagues were feeling unfulfilled with their retail shop jobs, today they own their own flourishing business that specialises in selling an impressive range of specialist spirits.

Pictured: Matthew McFadyen co-founder and owner of The Good Spirits Co.

Matthew said: “Myself and my two other business partners were all working together but felt we had all hit a bit of a brick wall.

“When you work for a bigger company you don’t have very much room to innovate and we started to think about what else we could do.

“We saw there was a gap in the market for somewhere in Glasgow that was a bit more specialised.

“We really just wanted to make the kind of shop that we would like to shop in.

“It was important to us that we were selling really good quality products for the best possible price.

“When we opened there were three of us and now we employ 22 people across the company.

“We have three shops now, the main one on Bath street, another small one in the city centre that sells beer and wine, and then there’s our West end outpost.”

The key to The Good Spirits Company's success is how they have managed to take all of the trepidation out of searching for a specialist product with their unparalleled customer service.

Matthew said: “You want to be able to walk in somewhere and feel confident that you’ll find what you're after for the right price and not be pressured into buying anything.

“We want it to be that you feel relaxed, get good advice and hopefully walk out with the thing you really want.

“It’s just good old fashioned retail really, where you get to know your customers and in return, they know that we have a great wealth of knowledge and passion for our products to share with them.

It's this ethos that has allowed the business to grow in a city that is strongly averse to any kind of pretension or pomp.

Matthew said: “Glasgow customers don’t suffer fools gladly and we know that they expect to be treated honestly and fairly without being spoken down to.

“If someone visits the shop the last thing we want is for them to feel patronised but we do hope that they go away with a little more knowledge than they had coming in, no matter what level it was at before.

“The best customer is a repeat customer and that’s what we aim for."

A visit to and of The Good Spirit Company's shop begs the question of how on earth they source and keep track of so many weird and wonderful products.

Matthew said: “We speak to customers and keep a close eye on what’s been in demand at the shop.

“When we first opened the shop it was right at the start of the gin boom where we went from having a range of 20 gins to over 200.

“We always try to deal with as wide a range of suppliers as possible, which I’m sure or accountant hates us for, but in reality, it just means we have a huge range of stock to draw from.

“Currently I’d say we have about 140 different suppliers.”

If you're wondering where you would start with so much choice, then The Good Spirits Co are at hand to help, hosting regular tasting sessions to teach you all about the nature of your taste buds.

Matthew said: “You get normal tasters, supertasters and non-tasters.

“Non-taster isn’t a negative term, it just means that you react differently to certain flavours.

“If you’re a supertaster you can pick out some really delicate flavours but you’ll also react very strongly to things like black coffee.

“That’s why drinks like a negroni will divide peoples opinions so strongly, it’s just about different peoples palates."

Running these tastings and making sure you find the perfect tipple are the business' staff who Matthew knows are the backbone of The Good Spirits Company.

He said:“Our West End shop has done really well over lockdown because people were really starting to shop more locally.

“We’ve got an amazing team of folk over there who are really embedded in the community.

“We always work really hard when it comes to investing in our staff's well being because it’s really important to us that people have that work-life balance.

“Our team have so much experience and so much to give that we make sure everyone gets an opportunity to have their voice heard.

“That’s how we get all these great personalities and can make the whole shopping experience as positive as possible.

The Glasgow Business Awards are hosted by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland. Winners will be announced at the award ceremony at DoubleTree by Hilton on October 7 2021, with voting for Glasgow’s Favourite Business opening on Monday 23rd August 2021.