From alcohol to ethanol and back again, Lewis Bowen, group CEO of Babco International, has used his experiences to grow his family business beyond its traditional focus. Jo Gilbert reports

Following a childhood immersed in the drinks industry via his father’s company, Babco, Lewis Bowen – now group CEO – has helped transform the business to an ownership-driven model and is embarking on an intriguing chapter reviving dormant brands.

Like many with parents in drinks, Bowen set out on his own path after university. After a lucky early exposure to the industry via Babco (founded in 2001), he struck out on his own to pursue a business producing ethanol-based gel and liquid fuels used for cooking stoves, camping equipment and festival catering.

“It was a real start-up journey and learning experience,” Bowen says. “Our mantra was to create a business that had real purpose, working with projects in Africa where ethanol fuels could provide safer cooking alternatives to wood or open fires.”

In the end however, the lure of drinks and swapping ethanol for alcohol drew him to new challenges.

In 2019, he joined Babco and has been instrumental in transforming the company from an entity focused on large-volume beer and cider distribution, supplying retailers such as the Co-op with own-label products and brands including Babycham, to a more premiumised, ownership-driven approach.

Today, that model operates as a brand-building platform rather than a traditional drinks distributor. The company focuses on owning and scaling a curated portfolio of spirits and drinks brands including Tofka vodka, Neptune rum and Spirit of Louisiana, while integrating others brought in through last year’s merger with Innovatus Drinks, such as Horse Guards and Barentsz gins. The combined company, christened Babco International, now operates with a board that includes former Diageo and Carlsberg executive Mark Crowther as non-executive chairman.

For Bowen, the 2025 merger and restructure was about creating a more resilient platform for brand building. Rather than manufacturing in house, Babco works with a network of third-party producers and bottlers across the UK and Europe, allowing it to move quickly into emerging categories without heavy capital investment. The model is supported by Babco’s distribution infrastructure and export network, with the company increasingly targeting premium, scalable brands.

Drinks Retailing can also reveal the acquisition of Tom Savano cocktails. Keen to expand into the fast-growing RTD segment, the move reinforces Babco’s strategy of building a diverse, high-growth range where each label is justified within the portfolio.

It hasn’t been plain sailing up to this point, however.

Ecommerce pivot

A new on-trade division launched just months before the first Covid lockdowns forced a rapid rethink. From there the company pivoted quickly towards ecommerce, with Amazon becoming a crucial channel and quickly reaching around £5m turnover in 2022/2023. Again, however, this brought its own challenges.

“During that time, we grew at pace and had a lot of oversupply with a brand called Roberto Cavalli, where we overestimated by 16,000 cases. We were heavily reliant on that one brand, and that’s always a risk in drinks as trends can change very quickly. We were also managing 128 products on Amazon as a small business and everything needed cashflow. So we took it right back to basics, restructured and merged with Innovatus, which had much better backing.”

The company now averages a more comfortable £4m a year and is also entering a new chapter reviving lapsed trademarks. Through the expertise of board member and trademark lawyer Simon Rendell, Babco has already given a new lease of life to brands such as Horse Guards gin (aimed at the Asian market) and Craigsman whisky.

Craigsman, Bowen explains, “was a very early whisky brand that we’re bringing back to life”.

He adds: “From an NPD perspective, it gives us a ready-made trademark that you can step into from a protection point of view. We work with some brilliant third-party suppliers, so we have the ability to build brands that can go into growing categories. Then it’s up to us to build the supply chain – and we have the ability now to make sure that each of the brands is looked after properly.

“If you stress your supply chain, especially in this current environment, it can easily fall over. You don’t get many chances to put a product on the shelf.

The company’s evolution from distributor to brand owner reflects a broader shift across the drinks industry: margins and long-term value increasingly lie in intellectual property rather than pure distribution. Working with third-party producers to develop the liquid and packaging also allows the company to move quickly into new categories while avoiding the capital intensity of owning production facilities.

Bowen believes the next five years will be especially challenging for drinks businesses, particularly those lacking strong financial backing. With supportive shareholders now in place and a clearer strategic focus however, Babco is positioning itself for that future.

“Back in 2023, we realised we needed to change what we were doing in order to survive and survive sustainably. Before, we operated a little bit with the mindset of ‘let’s go after as much revenue as we can, because we want to build a business quickly’. But we’ve changed into making sure we’ve got ownership of brands that are profitable for the long term.

“That’s our mantra now: remain sustainable in profitability, as well as retaining that nimble, entrepreneurial feel of the business, which is a much better position to be in,” he concludes.