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The #RaiseYourSpirits initiative will see an investment of £1.5m by Bacardi to help thebartender community across Western Europe.

Under the new plan, Bacardi will launch a virtual bar later this month with Deliveroo Editions, which will enable more than 120 bars to sell their cocktails to local customers.

Bacardi, UK & Ireland managing director Amanda Almond said: “Our strong relationships with bars and bartenders in the UK is incredibly important to us, and as we face the current challenges together, we’re doing all we can to provide the support they need.

“We have 158 years’ experience of overcoming crises and coming out fighting, and through our #RaiseYourSpirits initiative, we intend to do exactly that for our On-Trade partners.”

As part of its support, Bacardi is also hiring bartenders to host training events or to serve cocktails at events and pay their fees in advance.

Additionally, the spirts producer will purchase cocktail vouchers for events held in bars.

Through these initiatives, Bacardi anticipates that it will help bars and bartenders in the UK and Ireland through the crisis.

Bacardi UK & Ireland On-Trade sales director Steve Young: “In the first week of the crisis we made over 100,000 calls across Western Europe to lend our advice and support for our friends in the On-Trade. We’ve crafted our #RaiseYourSpirits initiative in response to everything we heard.

“We’re proud to be taking positive action to help, but this is just day one. Our support for bars and our bartender community will continue right until the day they can reopen their doors, and then beyond. We’re in this together.”

Last month, Bacardi announced that it will produce more than 1.1 million litres of alcohol, essential for making hand sanitisers to support the efforts of reducing the spread of coronavirus Covid-19.