Gin - mother's ruin or entrepreneur's delight?

This video report from FT.com covers the phenomenal rise in the number of craft gin brands in the last couple of years. Plenty of pubs and bars now have a special menu of different gins, many of them produced by small scale distillers who see an opportunity to enter what started as a niche market, but is fast becoming mass.

The video could stimulate a classroom discussion about whether this is a product led or market led change in the market, or about how Diageo, owners of Gordon's Gin, might respond. You could look at which factors are driving both supply and demand, and consider the PED for the highly-priced craft gins (they tend to retail at around £35 a bottle, compared with around £14 for Gordon's).

You could also look at the benefits to associated products such as Fever Tree tonic which offers a matching premium product - Fever Tree's profits more than doubled last year, thanks to rising numbers of adults cutting back on alcohol, as well as the shift toward artisanal spirits among those who are still drinking.