OK, this is a really long and elaborate story which you could make a book out of, which is why they have made a book out of it called “Every Bastard Said No”. So for the sake of the internet I’m going to condense it down.

1999: It starts out with a guy called Geoff Ross sitting on a plane reading a magazine. In the magazine is an ad for some vodka from somewhere claiming they come from a pure country. Geoff thinks this is stupid as the country he came from, New Zealand, was 100 times purer. So Geoff decides to make vodka in New Zealand because he was too stupid to realise that it was probably impossible.

2000-2003: Geoff builds a still. Geoff makes some vodka. Geoff starts selling vodka to mates that own bars round his neighborhood.

2004 -2005: Geoff packs in his day job to make vodka full time. The bottle gets redesigned because it looks crappy and a bunch of ads are made that offend some quite famous people and accidentally become one of the world’s first viral campaigns. The vodka starts selling quite well in New Zealand so Geoff enters it in all the high end alcohol competitions round the world for a laugh. It wins all the competitions.

2006-2007: Geoff meets some wide-boy money guys who buy half his business and float it on the sharemarket. They use the money they raise to push 42BELOW offshore.

Big name premium vodka company take 42BELOW to court. 42BELOW win. The woman from said big name premium vodka company who took them to court ends up falling in love with her lawyer. They now have three kids. 42BELOW is all over the NY Times. American sales go through the roof. There’s an incident in Las Vegas. Meanwhile in the UK 42BELOW is infiltrating all the high end bars because the reps are so good looking. L.A. stars adopt New Zealand vodka. Clubs in NY start to buy 42BELOW thanks to a bunch of ‘promoters’ from Brooklyn. A big time Hollywood producer buys into the company. 42BELOW enters all the competitions. 42BELOW wins all the competitions.

2008-2010: Bacardi ask Geoff to sell them 42BELOW. Geoff says yes. Bacardi buys 42BELOW.

Geoff buys a boat. Bacardi enters 42BELOW in all the competitions. 42Below wins all the competitions.

THE END