MARION SAUVEBOIS finds out how one couple’s hobby has turned into a thriving business venture

STARTING a cottage industry from your backroom is fraught at the best of times.

But Circle Cider’s Nick and Kaye Howard endured more than their fair share of setbacks, hiccups and darned unlucky glitches when they set out to peddle their homebrewed apple cider.

“Nick was going to the Bath & West Show and before he even got there he was pulled over by the police because he had overloaded the van he’d hired; he was fined £600 on the spot,” laughs Kaye, sat by her desk in the backroom where it all began five years ago – now converted into the Pinehurst cider firm’s office cum headquarters.

“He had to unload the van by the side of the road. It’s not the start you want. It’s all been a learning curve,” she adds glancing at Nick.

Things improved ever so slightly when he finally arrived at the showground several hours late and hundreds of pounds out of pocket. That is, until he realised he was woefully unprepared and his plain flagons of cider, drawn sign and “old bed sheet” draped over his stall were not a patch on his neighbours’ grand displays.

Flogging his wares also proved problematic for the reserved yet proud producer, who happily gave samples away forgetting altogether the pressing need to close a sale. Kaye has since, she points out with a grin, taken sole charge of the marketing and trading side of the operation.

“It’s really funny now but at the time it was very intimidating and the business was hanging on this,” says the mother-of-two.

Nick chimes in timidly: “On the first day of the show, I was so tired I slept in the van. It’s one of those situations where you think, ‘I won’t make it.’ Now we have a warehouse, we’ve gone from 7,000 to 60,000 litres in two years. It’s weird to think how hard it was then.”

Circle Cider is the brainchild of Nick and Nick alone. In fact when he first broached the idea of launching a cider-making firm in the family home, Kaye was, of her own admission, firmly opposed to the half-baked scheme.

“I’m biting my tongue now but I was dead against the idea,” confides Kaye, 36, sheepishly. “I thought he was absolutely barmy and so did the family. Bless him, despite all that he carried on anyway and look what he’s achieved today.”

Bitten by the pressing bug Nick initially dabbled with a friend, using donated apples, a makeshift press and any spare kitchen equipment up to the task.

“When I first started we used baby muslin as a filter,” says the 34-year-old. “We used a food processor and when it broke we used a fence post and a bucket in the back garden. When that failed to achieve anything we took part of the garden shredder and modified it.”

Two years later, in 2011, he took voluntary redundancy and turned his hobby into a full-blown craft cider venture. This time though, he did away with the dubious machinery, and splurged on some professional kit.

“I remember the day I had my exit interview all the cider equipment got delivered,” he recalls. “It happened really fast. If I had had more time to think about it, I would probably not have done it. There’s a million and one reasons why you shouldn’t start a business but you can’t think that way.”

Setting up eight 1,000L tanks in an already cramped family home was a brave move.

“There was apple mulch up the ceiling, on the curtains and we had wasps in January,” explains Kaye, who heads up the business full-time. “You could smell the cider before you even walked into the house. We couldn’t even watch the TV because there were stacks of bottles in front of it.”

In the deluge of business tax forms and sundry paperwork which followed just to get the business off the ground, the moniker Circle Cider came more as an afterthought than a Eureka moment.

“I was filling in the environmental health forms and it asked for our name. The big green at the end of the road is called The Circle, so that’s what I chose. Needs must,” shrugs Nick, who works part-time designing shop fittings.

Five years on, Circle Cider has found a keen audience in Swindon and far beyond. The husband and wife team are even preparing to export to Finland.

The company flagship drinks are Butcher’s Boy, a sweet cider and the drier Cat’s Tongue. The firm also produces a seasonal mulled cider. Nick is currently experimenting with a new fruit cider recipe.

The days of apple-picking in pals’ gardens are firmly behind him. Nick and Kaye now order in bulk from nearby orchards. For the most part anyway; true to Circle Cider’s early roots, when friends and family pitched in, donating fruit to the fledgling operation, they run a community apple scheme and each year produce a special cider, Roundabout, made from locals’ crops.

Swindonians can either drop off their apples at the firm’s West Swindon unit and purchase the finished product at a discounted price of £1.50 or swap them for cash there and then, at £120 per tonne.

With a solid core range and more limited edition ciders in the works, Nick’s pipe dream has expanded beyond his and Kaye’s wildest expectations. But if their laborious beginnings have taught them anything it is not to count their chickens just yet.

“We’ve grown so much in the last two years, and the recognition is nice but we want to slow things down a little,” says Kaye. “We want to sustain ourselves and keep a steady run.”

As for reaching a comfortable work-life balance, it’s easier said than done for Nick.

“Nick is all work 24/7,” she adds. “I try to keep business and family life separate otherwise it consumes you. When we get to 5pm, I switch off for the day. We have a meeting about the business when the kids are asleep every Wednesday and we can talk about everything then.”

“I get in trouble a lot for talking about work all the time,” admits Nick. “I try to but I can’t switch off. It’s my baby.”

Apples can be donated anytime or swapped for cider or cash on Thursdays only between 5pm and 8pm at Circle Cider, Axis Business Centre, West Swindon, SN5 7YS. Bottles start at £3.50. The online store is available at www.circlecider.com.