When you talk to different bar owners and operators about ecoSPIRITS one of the common themes that emerges is the passion of Paul Gabie, co-founder and CEO of Proof & Company to make the concept work.
As an authority on cocktail and spirits culture, Paul has been named one of 35 creative industry leaders shaping the future of Singapore and he is also a founding board member of the Singapore Cocktail Bar Association.
Under his leadership, Proof & Company has been ranked one of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in Asia Pacific by the Financial Times, and developed to encompass eight offices across the region, a portfolio of leading independent spirits, and the world’s most awarded drinks consultancy.
As Proof & Company grew and developed, Paul began to understand and question the impact the business was having on the environment, as he explains: “As an independent spirits distributor, Proof & Company moves craft spirits from around the world – think London Dry Gin from the United Kingdom or artisanal tequila from Mexico – to our markets across Asia Pacific.
“Even as a relatively small company in the spirits industry, this adds up to an enormous amount of liquid, glass and packaging moving tens of thousands of kilometres across the globe. This experience was the genesis of ecoSPIRITS: we simply asked ourselves, isn’t there a better way?
“Why, as an industry, do we make beautiful glass bottles and packaging, ship them halfway around the world, and throw them in the bin after service? In coming to realise the unsustainability of single use glass, ecoSPIRITS was born.”
It’s one thing to have the idea, but as Paul says there was a lot involved in bringing the concept to life.
“Since developing the concept of ecoSPIRITS in 2016, we have been on a four-year journey to translate this simple, powerful idea into a comprehensive, scalable technology for circular distribution of premium spirits.
“The Singapore-based ecoSPIRITS engineering team, led by my brother Neil Gabie as our technical director, developed the ecoTOTE, ecoPLANT and other aspects of the ecoSPIRITS technology over that period. We filed the initial patent in 2018, and have been expanding the list of markets served by ecoSPIRITS ever since.”
He adds: “We believe that the future of the spirits and hospitality industry is a sustainable one. Circular packaging solutions are necessarily a cornerstone of that future. We simply can’t be truly sustainable without them.”
The beauty of the ecoSPIRITS system is that it enables bars to be more sustainable and to help the environment without changing the way they work, without compromising on spirit quality and also without cost implications. In fact ecoSPIRITS can help you to save money, crucial in these challenging times.
To find out more about ecoSPIRITS and how you can get involved, contact Proof & Company.
