Monday 15 March 2010

Registering for business...

Whilst things have been a bit slow on the ground here, I have finally managed to register the business with the Council. OK, it doesn’t mean we are ready to sell yet... although I am shortly taking a delivery of bottles ready to get going. There is still a bit of work to do – insurances need to be purchased (just in case) and I am slowly but surely working my way through the Business Link start-up business ‘organiser’. This is an administrative thing that just helps me make sure I have checked all the correct boxes as a business before getting on with the fun part of actually selling the cider.

The intention for this blog is to act as a conduit to 146 Cider – there are two purposes for this. First of all, it means that people who buy the stuff can see where its come from and who we are. The other reason (all things being equal) is that I intend to build a partnership with an off-licence who can actually supply the cider, meaning that I can simply point people in that direction for the time being. To me, this seems to be the most appropriate way of starting out – although I will welcome feedback on this blog!

The only other thing to update is that I have now entered two cider competitions this year – the Big Apple ‘Putley’ competition and the International Hereford Museum competition.

Putley is a bit of a ‘cider-off’, with participants being judged by their fellow competitors, and if often seen as one of the more equitable ways of judging a cider competition. For 146 Cider, this will be our first ‘outing’ against others and I am hoping its going to be a great time! It has been plugged quite a lot on The Cider Workshop, so lets hope there are some friendly faces during the day.

The Hereford Museum competition is a more serious set up, and probably a bit more prestigious too. Again, its taking my Hampshire cider into the lions den that is Herefordshire – it will be interesting to see how it fares against cider that is made in ‘the heart of cider country’!

There may be other competitions on the books, although I am not sure if I want to go for many more this year – it would be great to place at all in these two.

All the best
Jez