A DORSET company has benefitted from exporting more than £100,000 of goods to Canada.

It comes after The UK and Canada have locked in their existing trading relationship, worth £20 billion, and agreed to begin negotiating a new more ambitious trade deal as early as next year.

And gin distillery Conker Spirit started exporting earlier this year and has already seen exports of Dorset Dry Gin and Conker Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur surpass the £100,000 mark.

Founded in 2014 by Rupert Holloway, the gin producer took a full year of experimenting with distilling and botanical foraging to be able to deliver his first batch of 60 hand-filled bottles.

Now, with a team of 12, Conker Spirit produces more than 1,000 bottles a week and exports to Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and more recently Canada.

Mr Holloway said: “When I started working on my recipe for the Dorset Dry Gin, I wanted to use botanicals that embody the Dorset countryside.

“After a full year developing the recipe, I landed on a traditional London Dry gin recipe complimented with elderberries, marsh samphire and gorse flowers handpicked from the local cliff tops''.

“Canada ticked all the boxes for us as an export market, taking into consideration key factors such as geography, culture, and language.

“We found that, as Canadians take great pride in keeping minibars at home for entertaining guests, products such as our Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur and its 'one ingredient' Espresso Martini serve were especially well-received.

“Thanks to the Department for International Trade, we were part of a very exciting trade mission to Ontario in 2018 to showcase the best of UK spirits. The trip was a crucial steppingstone to meeting new contacts and for our long-term success in Canada.”