Post by Tom Stevens

You might have heard about some pretty exciting changes to life at Shandy Shack over the last few weeks. Since the news broke last week in The Grocer that our clumsy idea dreamt up during an early mid-life crisis trip to Wales had been acquired by SHS Drinks, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster. We've been working closely with the SHS Drinks team since we started work on our bottlegreen collaboration early this year. It was immediately apparent we shared a lot of the same values as their team - we were welcomed like family by Andy Morris-Jinks & Sasha McNeilly from the word go as we worked our way through countless flavour combinations and work never seemed too serious not to have fun. I'm already reminiscing about my trip down to the bottlegreen mill in Stroud back in March, being shown around by David Smith & Jill Tulip Howell, which felt like a school trip on steroids. It was clear how much SHS' experience could help us, with no better example than the attention to detail and care that Tony Bellian (steaming down the M6 from Warrington on a few hours notice) & Paul Kearney showed during their visit to our production site to offer considered advice on how we could improve our processes. And all of that was before the conversations about working under the same umbrella had got started... But more than anything, what excites us is how dedicated SHS are to building some of the biggest drinks brands in the UK, from WKD through to bottlegreen & Shloer. Our ambition remains to make Shandy Shack a household name across the country and we couldn't have found a better partner to help make the dream become a reality. We've got the call up to the Christmas Party on Thursday and whilst I'm not all that excited by the thought of stiffer competition on the bowling alley, it'll be nice to crack open a drink or two with our new team. Who knows, we might even treat ourselves to something a touch stronger than a shandy to celebrate. A big thanks to Arthur Richmond, Bernie Orr, Karen Salters & Marcus Freer, along with the rest of the leadership team for believing in our mighty mid-strength shandies and for backing Ed, Will & I to take it to the next level. On to the next chapter....