Hi,
Sorry for the late reply, juggling a family as well as co-running things means I unfortunately can't respond as fast as I would like outside business hours. You all raise absolutely reasonable expectations and completely valid points and I will try and address them to the best of my ability.
In regards to the clean room, I don't feel comfortable posting pictures of a work in progress as that may reflect poorly on the business in the future. We have what we feel is a great product produced to the highest standards within our means, however we fully accept that our word is not enough for many of you. That is completely fair and we completely understand that position. We fully accept that some people are wary of buying from new vendors and we think that is a sensible approach to take. We hope that over time we can convince you otherwise, but we are still learning as we go and those valid arguments are being heard loud and clear.
I wish we had the demand to need a bathtub(!) to brew in, but the reality is we are working in extremely small quantities at the moment and a fully furbished clean room is simply outwith our financial means. As some of you may know from personal experience, many businesses at the beginning are at the mercy of cash-flow and we are no exception. We are doing this from our own pockets and those pockets are somewhat modest. None the less, our first and highest priority is to ensure that every bottle we make is made in a clean and safe environment.
In regards to VAT, we will amend the website as soon as possible to make it clear that the VAT is included in the price. We are not VAT registered (as we don't qualify for that yet) so that will not appear anywhere on the site for the foreseeable future.
I feel the conversation has taken a negative tone somewhat in this thread so I will stop responding for the time being until we can clear up the issues raised. We genuinely appreciate all the feedback, positive and negative and will try our best to come back with answers and amendments where we can. This is our first time running a business and clearly that is showing right now. For the time being I will leave PR to my partner, as obviously it is not my forte!
Thanks!