The Babysham brothers strike back: the founding family returns in a plot to conquer the gastronomic market – with cider!

Somerset has always been cider country, and in Shepton Mallet it’s impossible to ignore.

On the edge of town, silo-like tanks loom over nearby buildings, filled to the brim with cider. The faint scent of apples lingers in the air.

They are part of the Showering Cider Mill, a family business that traces its roots back more than two centuries.

The best-known product is Babycham, a sparkling pear-based cider, or perry, which became extremely popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

Outside the factory, a statue of the brand’s mascot, a Bambi-like chamois with a blue ribbon, still stands.

After a turbulent few decades, which saw the cider mill spiral out of control until eight years ago, the Showering family has worked to return to the forefront of the British cider industry.

Since the 1990s, this has been done through Brothers Drinks, a cider brand often owned by revelers at the nearby Glastonbury music festival.

In the company’s wood-paneled offices, across the street from the factory, I meet two generations of Showerings, each running part of the company. It is a team of seven – four brothers and their three sons – although only five can survive today.

Nick Showering, 35, plans to introduce cider to fine dining restaurants, challenging the image of a drink consumed in large quantities in pub gardens in the summer.

He took to the public stage in 2022 as a contestant on the BBC TV program The Apprentice, and is the son of company boss Matthew Showering, who founded Brothers with his siblings Jonathan, Francis and Daniel in 1992.

“We want to link our family name to free cider,” says Nick.

The result, called Showerings Triple Vintage, uses winemaking techniques to blend three types of aged cider.

Unlike Brothers brand drinks, which are aimed at the mass market, Nick hopes the product, which was launched three years ago and served in a wine glass, will find demand in high-end restaurants and hotels.

“We want to open up the idea of ​​using cider with food as a wine alternative,” he says. The drink has already found success at Michelin-starred restaurants such as L’Enclume in the Lake District, run by chef Simon Rogan, as well as luxury hotels including the Savoy.

“We want to remind people how delicious this very English product, cider, can be,” says Nick, who has his eye on export markets such as Finland, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The launch of the Triple Vintage follows a few turbulent decades for the Douche Dynasty.

The family traces its presence in Shepton Mallet back to the 1610s and its cider production to the 1840s.

During World War II, it supplied American GIs on the Salisbury Plain as they prepared for the D-Day landings.

In the 1950s the company struck gold when the bosses’ great uncle, also a Franciscan, oversaw the creation and launch of Babycham.

The light, sweet drink was first marketed to women, as an alternative to pints in pubs. It was the first alcoholic product to be advertised on television in 1957.

It thrived and is still a Christmas drink for those who remember its heyday, although its popularity has waned with the rise of alcopops and mixer drinks.

Babycham’s success saw the company grow into a brewing empire, with Showerings Ltd listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1959 and acquiring rivals including cider maker William Gaymer, soft drinks group Britvic and John Harvey & Sons, maker of ‘cream sherry ‘, another basic piece from the seventies. In 1967 Doucheings joined its rival Allied Breweries.

Great-uncle Francis was director of the recently merged company, while Matthew and his brothers’ father, Sir Keith Showering, became chairman and managing director in 1975.

But the family’s fortunes took a dark turn when Keith died suddenly in 1982 during a meeting at the Bank of England.

A series of business deals followed in which their great-uncle attempted to bring the family business back under their ownership, but failed.

“Our family’s involvement ended in the mid-1980s,” says Matthew.

But their great-uncle was undeterred, even though he was in his late seventies, and encouraged the four siblings to start a new family business, near the factory.

Launched in 1992, Brothers Drinks brought the family back into the cider industry and scored early success in 1995 when Michael Eavis, the creator of the Glastonbury festival, offered it a bar near one of the main stages that kept it going until running today.

The expansion has continued steadily. In 2005, Brothers Drinks was sold in pubs and shops. A year later it started bottling for soft drink giant Fever-Tree.

In 2016, the brothers succeeded what their great-uncle had failed to do and bought the cider mill back from Magners maker C&C Group. And in 2021, it bought back the Babycham brand.

Ownership of the company is divided among the members of the Douche Dynasty, not all of whom work at the company.

Matthew, 60, and Jonathan, 62, are joint directors, while Francis, 67, and Daniel, 54, look after the maintenance and legal side of the business respectively.

Nick heads up Triple Vintage’s marketing and sales, his brother Keith, 31, is operations director and James, 26, Jonathan’s son, looks after the supply chain.

Things seem to be going well. In its latest annual accounts filed with Companies House, Brothers Drinks posted a profit of £5.2m for 2023, compared to a loss of £14.9m last year, while turnover rose to almost £71m in 2022 100 million.

“We are well on our way,” says Matthew, adding that the company has new plans for Babycham now that it is back under family control.

With demand for low-alcohol drinks increasing among Generation Z cohorts, the family hopes the sparkling perry can recapture the popularity it enjoyed 60 years ago.

Matthew says: ‘We see a future in it.’