Article by media partner Cuisine Noir, the country’s first Black culinary lifestyle outlet since 2009 dedicated to connecting the African diaspora through food, drink and travel.
With a mission to bring African gin and spirits to every back bar in the world, long-time friends and business partners, Damola Timeyin and Chris Frederick, are using their collective experience in branding, advertising, finance, and the food and beverage industry to put their portfolio of spirits on the map.
With a special focus on their world-class Pan-African spirit, Bayab Gin, the South Africa-based brand currently offers four expressions and has already built a strong following.
Bringing an African Spirits Brand to Life
“It really began with a moment. Chris and I were out at a bar with a huge selection of spirits, and we asked the bartender if he had any spirits from Africa. The answer was no,” Timeyin shares.
“For us, that was astonishing given the size, the depth, and the diversity of the continent. That moment was really the catalyst that made us say something needs to change.”
Timeyin and Frederick have been friends for nearly 20 years before becoming business partners. While they grew up in the United Kingdom, they are both of Nigerian descent. Timeyin noting that he spent much time between the two countries over the course of his life.
The pair met while studying at Leeds University in Yorkshire, England. After graduating, they remained close, building careers in finance and banking before ultimately finding themselves on parallel paths in food and beverage.
“Chris worked in finance and owned a pub. He was one of the few Black publicans in the UK,” says Timeyin. He continues, “I left banking for advertising, and in the agency work, I was supporting spirits brands.”
Following their conversation at the bar that day, they used their experiences to inform their instincts and began building Spearhead Spirits, the parent company that houses their suite of products. Founded in 2019, the brand is focused on bringing African spirits to the forefront of the beverage industry.
Developing Expressions of African Gin
“While Africa has a plethora of spirits, there weren’t many African spirit brands in major markets like the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe. And if you were to ask bartenders in any of those places, African liquors weren’t really a thing, and that’s what sparked our interest and motivation,” says Timeyin.
Spearhead Spirits’ initial product was Vusa, an African sugar cane vodka, but they soon expanded into gin, a category with a well-established culture and reputation in the United Kingdom.
They launched their first African gin product, Bayab Gin, in 2020. Timeyin says, “What we understood is that gin is a great canvas for telling stories about flavor, and flavors from around the world because you’re using a tapestry of botanicals to paint that picture. And if we wanted to bring African [spirit] culture to the world, gin was quite possibly the best vehicle or place to start.”
By Geo Banks-Weston
