The tonic brand Fever Tree has said that it will be building a “fantastic bar” in its London office as it announced its employees will “never” be returning to full-time work there.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, the co-founder and chief executive of the luxe tonic brand, Tim Warrillow, said that the company will adopt a flexi-working approach, which will create extra space in the office as it will never be completely full.
“Everyone is very excited and rather upset that lockdown is keeping them out of it [the bar],” said Mr Warrillow.
“I took the decision very early on."
The co-founder explained how he had reflected on the nature of office working during the pandemic.
“It’s quite interesting,” he said. "I was definitely the sort of stick-in-the-mud, very much saying ‘we have to be in the same office’, that it was essential for bonding and creativity and all those things.
“And the early lockdown proved me wrong, so quite early on we decided this is now going to be permanent.”
He continued: “It is going to be flexi-working, that’s the way we are going to work it. And to ensure that I can’t go back on my thoughts, we’ve turned half of the office into a bar so there’s no space any more!”
The news comes after Fever Tree announced that its sales were up by 20 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019 due to the fact that more Britons has “treated themselves” to “well-deserved” gin and tonics during lockdown.
"We are already market leader [in home-bought tonic], and so to be 20 per cent above that is a reflection of the fact that we now find ourselves in more people’s fridges and more households than ever before,” said Mr Warrillow.
