Babysham brothers strike again: Founding household return in plot to overcome the effective eating market – with cider!

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

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

They form part of the Showering Cider Mill, a family-owned business that traces its roots back over two centuries.

Its most famous product is Babycham, a sparkling pear-based cider, or perry, that boomed in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. 

A statue of the brand’s mascot, a Bambi-like chamois wearing a blue ribbon, still stands outside the factory.

After a turbulent few decades, which saw the cider mill fall out of its control until eight years ago, the Showering family has been working to return to the forefront of the UK cider industry.

Since the 1990s this has been done through Brothers Drinks, a cider brand often in the hands of revellers at the nearby Glastonbury music festival.

It is in the firm’s wood-panelled offices, across the road from the factory, that I meet two generations of Showerings, all of whom manage a part of the firm. It is a team of seven – four brothers and their three sons – though only five can make it today.

Nick Showering, 35, plans to bring cider into fine dining, challenging its image as a drink to be consumed in quantity in pub gardens in summer.

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

‘We want to put our family name to a no-expense-spared cider,’ Nick says.

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

Unlike its Brothers-branded drinks, which target a mass market, Nick is hoping the product, 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 having cider with food as a wine alternative,’ he says. The drink has already found success with Michelin-star restaurants such as L’Enclume in the Lake District, run by chef Simon Rogan, as well as upmarket hotels including the Savoy.

‘We want to remind people how good 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 turbulent few decades for the Showering dynasty.

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

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

In the 1950s the firm hit gold when the bosses’ great-uncle, also a Francis, oversaw the creation and launch of Babycham.

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

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

Babycham’s success grew the business into a brewing empire, with Showerings Ltd listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1959 and snapping up rivals including cider-maker William Gaymer, soft drink group Britvic and John Harvey & Sons, maker of ‘cream sherry’, another 1970s staple. In 1967 Showerings joined its rival Allied Breweries.

Great-uncle Francis was a director of the newly merged firm, while the father of Matthew and his brothers, Sir Keith Showering, became its chairman and chief executive in 1975.

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

A series of corporate deals followed in which their great-uncle tried and failed to bring the family business back under their ownership.

‘By the mid-’80s, our family’s involvement had come to an end,’ Matthew says.

But their great-uncle was undeterred, despite then being in his late 70s, and encouraged the four siblings to start a new family business from scratch down the road from the factory.

Brothers Drinks, launched in 1992, brought the family back into the cider industry and scored an early success in 1995 when Michael Eavis, creator of the Glastonbury festival, offered it a bar near one of the main stages which it runs to this day.

Expansion has continued apace. In 2005, Brothers Drinks began to be sold in pubs and shops. A year later it started bottling for soft drinks giant Fever-Tree.

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

Ownership of the company is split among members of the Showering dynasty, not all of whom work at the firm.

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

Nick leads on marketing and sales of Triple Vintage, his brother Keith, 31, serves as operations director and James, 26, Jonathan’s son, looks after its supply chain.

Business seems to be going well. In its latest accounts filed with Companies House, Brothers Drinks posted a profit of £5.2million for 2023, swinging from a £14.9million loss the previous year, while sales rose to nearly £100million from £71million in 2022.

‘We’re on a bit of a roll,’ Matthew says, adding that the firm has fresh plans for Babycham now it is back under family control.

With the rise in demand for low-alcohol drinks among the Gen Z cohort, the family is hoping the sparkling perry can recapture the popularity it enjoyed 60 years ago.

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