Located in Victoriaville in Centre-du-Québec, Distillerie Euclide is the first distillery in Quebec to be a workers’ cooperative, putting the circular economy and social economy at the heart of the production of (Les)2 Elements Gin.
Behind Distillerie Euclide de Victoriaville’s gin are many small gestures that help the planet and make a difference for many Victoriaville residents. Cranberry residue from a local company is used in the recipe and the oranges used for their peel are not wasted.
“We’re taking these oranges to THE OTHER factory, a [Organisme sans but lucratif] local NPO in Victoriaville. They peel the oranges for free, we take the peel back and give them the oranges in return. We like to tell people that when they bought our gin, they helped put oranges on the plates of people in need or children in primary schools who don’t have access to a good lunch,” explained founding member of Euclide Distillery, Sébastien Roy.
The company’s social and environmental missions allow it to differentiate itself from other Quebec distilleries.
With the slogan of the city of Victoriaville “cradle of sustainable development” it was natural for the three friends and business partners to give something back to society.
“We’re used to it, Victo, reclamation and composting,” launched Euclide Distillery founding member Ken Bouffard.
The company is the first distillery in Quebec to operate as a cooperative.
“All of this to bring forward the decisions and the people and not the majority stake, and the decisions focused on the person who would own the majority of the shares,” said Sébastien Roy.
All of these missions and values don’t detract from the flavors, so much so that the company won the gold medal in the flavored gins category at the recent Global Gin Masters in London.
The company now wants to develop new products that could see the light of day in the coming months.