British craft cider producer Orchard Pig is reportedly set to launch a new drone delivery service, which will use a flying pig to ship cider to UK customers.

The drone will feature a metre-wide flying Gloucester Old Spots pig to deliver cider.

Orchard Pig founder Andrew Quinlan was quoted by media sources as saying: "Orchard Pig has gone from strength to strength over the past three years and some people said it was impossible to make a hobby into a business.

"Well, we made the impossible possible and now have used the delivery service to make pigs fly – because why not? By creating a delivery service we’re proud of we want to show them that Orchard Pig is capable of doing anything the big companies do, without taking it too seriously."

The company revealed that the delivery service has so far completed a couple of test flights, amid strict flying laws in the UK.

It expects to launch the drone delivery service in early 2016.

Orchard Pig joins retail companies such as Wal-Mart and Amazon that are experimenting drone service for deliveries.

Quinlan further added: "We come up against the big breweries all the time and it’s a constant David and Goliath struggle – each week we’re faced with new challenges.

"However, drones have surprisingly been our businesses biggest challenge to date but we’ve overcome bigger ones, so we’re confident we’ll get there."