Fever-Tree has built a huge bar inside its London office because staff ‘are never going back full-time’

After nearly a year working full-time from home, there is a raging debate about the future of the office. Will we go back to normal? Will office life be a thing of the past? Or is the future flexi-working, with a few days beavering away next to colleagues, and the rest at the home-desk?  

The boss of high-end tonic maker Fever-Tree believes he has the answer for his company at least.

The listed firm, which launched 15 years ago at the very start of the craft gin craze that has swept the world, now distributes worldwide and pre-pandemic led  operations every day from its HQ in Hammersmith.

Co-founder and chief executive Tim Warrillow told the Standard that the company has completed building a “fantastic bar in our office on the basis that we’re never going to be going back to full-time working there”.

The company will instead opt for flexi-working, meaning the office will never be as full as it once was, and so has space for a fully-stocked bar.

Warrillow said: “I have to say, everyone is very excited and rather upset that lockdown is keeping them out of it [the bar].

“I took the decision very early on. It’s quite interesting, I was definitely the sort of stick-in-the-mud, very much saying ‘we have to be in the same office’, that it was essential for bonding and creativity and all those things. And the early lockdown proved me wrong, so quite early on we decided this is now going to be permanent.

“It is going to be flexi-working, that’s the way we are going to work it. And to ensure that I can’t go back on my thoughts, we’ve turned half of the office into a bar so there’s no space any more!”

The chief executive, who believes many businesses will see working practices change, said that the general response so far to his bar news has been positive.