Product Update

Is Didsbury Gin Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Is Didsbury Gin from Dragons’ Den still around in 2026? The deal it made, the dragons who invested, and where to buy Didsbury Gin today.

Dragons' Den IndexUpdated 5 February 20266 min read

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Didsbury Gin turned a Manchester suburb's name into a spirits brand, and for years it was held up as one of the Den's clear success stories, a single Dragon writing the full cheque for the exact stake on offer, followed by real retail growth. The ending, unfortunately, is not the one the early coverage promised.

The short answer

Didsbury Gin is no longer trading. Alderman's Drinks Ltd, the company behind the brand, went into voluntary liquidation, with directors concluding at a creditors meeting in December 2024 that the business could not continue by reason of its liabilities. A licensed insolvency practitioner was appointed to wind the company up, and reporting at the time put the debts owed to creditors at close to £200,000.

That is a firm, documented answer rather than a guess. Multiple industry and insolvency trade outlets covered the liquidation directly, and it marks a genuine reversal for a brand that spent years being cited as a Dragons' Den success case.

It is worth being precise about the distinction between a company pausing and one being formally wound up. This is the latter. A liquidator has been appointed, creditors are being dealt with through a formal insolvency process, and there is no indication of a relaunch under the same corporate entity.

The Dragons' Den pitch

The Didsbury Gin founders pitched their range of gin-based alcoholic beverages in series 16, episode 13, leaning on the growing craft gin trend and the strong local identity baked into the brand name itself, named after the Manchester suburb where it began.

They asked for £75,000 in exchange for 33.3 percent of the company, a substantial third of the business in return for the investment and connections to help the brand scale beyond its local roots.

The deal that got done

Jenny Campbell backed the founders alone for the full £75,000 asked, at the 33.3 percent equity on the table. Campbell built her business reputation in cash machine operations before turning to angel investing, and craft drinks with a strong regional identity fit the kind of consumer brand she has tended to back on the show.

A solo deal, rather than a joint one between multiple Dragons, often means one investor saw a clear enough opportunity to commit the full amount without needing to share the risk. In the years right after the pitch that read as a strong call, with the brand expanding its range and building a loyal following around Manchester.

What went wrong

The UK gin market that Didsbury Gin rode into the Den cooled considerably through the early 2020s. Rising input and energy costs, a much more crowded field of craft gin brands than existed at launch, and shifting drinking habits all put pressure on smaller producers, and plenty of the small distilleries that launched around the same time have since closed or been absorbed into bigger drinks groups.

The company's own directors ultimately concluded Didsbury Gin could not continue trading because of its liabilities, and the business was placed into voluntary liquidation at the end of 2024. That outcome does not erase the genuine growth the brand achieved in its earlier years, but it is the honest end of this particular story rather than an ongoing one.

It is a useful reminder that a strong launch and a few good years of retail listings do not guarantee long term survival, especially in a drinks category as capital intensive and cost sensitive as spirits production. Bottling, glass, duty and energy costs all rose sharply through the period the brand was trying to scale, and smaller producers without the balance sheet of a major drinks group had far less room to absorb those increases than their size on the shelf might have suggested.

The bottom line

Didsbury Gin asked for £75,000 for 33.3 percent, got exactly that from Jenny Campbell, and spent several years afterwards being cited as a Dragons' Den growth story before the underlying company went into voluntary liquidation in late 2024, owing close to £200,000 to creditors.

If you are looking for a bottle today, be aware the brand is not being actively restocked through its original company. Anyone citing this pitch as a current success story is working from outdated information.

Where to buy Didsbury Gin

Still selling as of 5 February 2026. Check today's price and availability.

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See the full Didsbury Gin deal breakdown and term sheet →