The founder of a Royal Wootton Bassett-based gin which is experiencing soaring popularity locally has described the new brand’s progress as “phenomenal”.

Andy Carr, the managing director of the company which launched Dauntless gin, said that they were now planning to roll out nationally, before looking at exporting to the US and Japan.

Andy said: “We are very pleased with the progress, and it is going at a much faster pace than we expected – it couldn’t be going better.

“We are getting so many enquiries from people all around the country, looking to give gifts and who have heard of us, and we are getting great support from our suppliers.

“We sold our first batch within three weeks, and this week we are producing a batch which is 10 times the size.

“We’ve had some great responses to it, and the shops that have been stocking Dauntless in the soft launch phase are quadrupling their orders.”

The London dry gin, which is made solely from English wheat grain spirit, is littered with military connections which reflect its Royal Wootton Bassett heritage.

Among the 14 botanicals it contains are blue and white poppies, and part of their profits are donated to Combat Stress, who support former services personnel, and the Cavell Nurses’ Trust, who provide help to UK nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants.

After a soft launch in August, Dauntless was brought to a wider audience as part of the Swindon Gin Festival at the end of September staged at the Steam museum.

Andy said: “We had a phenomenal reception at the gin festival, and we had 3,000 people come and say hello.

“We did some master classes, where I talked about what we’re up to, the product, and our aspirations. We had capacity at those – we were talking to 100 people at a time, and we received a standing ovation.”

Despite still being run by only friends and family, who are not taking any profit from the business, the aspirations are to build on strong local foundations.

Andy said: “We are more than a gin company, and the good causes bit resonates with people nicely.

“We are partnering with Arkell’s across their entire estate, across five counties.

"Arkell’s pubs in Wootton Bassett have already got it, and they have it in their central warehouse, so any of their pubs can take it. They support some military charities as well, so it resonates with them.

“Our aspiration is for Dauntless to be a UK-wide product very quickly, and then to look at exports to the US and Japan. In the next three weeks we plan to launch a mail order service from Wootton Bassett.”

In addition, the gin is already on sale at the Three Trees Farm Shop at Chiseldon, as well as shops and pubs in Calne.